As we face policy and communications challenges, we must heed painful lessons from the past
In late 2019, before the bushfires hit crisis level, concern about climate change in Australia was at record levels. Since then at least 27 people have lost their lives, millions of animals have died and the navy has been called in to evacuate beaches. The devastating impacts of climate change are tragically becoming real for many. And many, from bushfire survivors to business leaders to firefighters, are calling for action.
As a result, we are in a moment where the opportunity to implement effective and long-lasting policy to lower Australia’s climate pollution could finally be within reach. Indeed, the independent MP Zali Steggall has announced her intention to introduce a climate bill into federal parliament in March. Meanwhile the New South Wales energy minister, Matt Kean, has asked the state’s chief scientist to identify opportunities for NSW to lead on climate action. Even the NSW Young Liberals have put forward a plan to act on climate.
To grasp this opportunity we must learn critical lessons from the past.
This is not the first time that public support for climate action has
been sky high, nor the first time that political opportunity for
far-reaching policy has presented itself. In 2007 Kevin Rudd was elected
with a huge mandate to act on climate. In 2011 the Gillard government,
with support of the crossbench, implemented the extremely effective
clean energy future package. And last year people across the country
worked tirelessly to make the federal election a climate election.As a result, we are in a moment where the opportunity to implement effective and long-lasting policy to lower Australia’s climate pollution could finally be within reach. Indeed, the independent MP Zali Steggall has announced her intention to introduce a climate bill into federal parliament in March. Meanwhile the New South Wales energy minister, Matt Kean, has asked the state’s chief scientist to identify opportunities for NSW to lead on climate action. Even the NSW Young Liberals have put forward a plan to act on climate.
To grasp this opportunity we must learn critical lessons from the past.
In all three of these cases, we lost in the how – how should Australia go about acting on climate?
In the first instance, we lost momentum for action because we could not agree on the effectiveness of a policy – would the carbon pollution reduction scheme with its 5% emissions reduction target be a springboard for further action, or lock in rights to pollute for our biggest emitters?
In the second case, climate deniers such as Tony Abbott weaponised the carbon price policy for political ends, running the extremely effective “Axe the tax” scare campaign. Furthermore, the carbon price was for many Australians an abstract policy idea disconnected from their lives but perceived to be hurting their hip pockets.
In the third, a poll by the Australia Institute found that there was simply not enough awareness of the differences between the two main parties’ energy and climate policies. With renewable energy booming, the federal Coalition was able to paint itself has having a reasonable and sensible climate policy, even though it has anything but.
I raise these painful moments in history not to rehash the past but rather to see what we can learn for the future. Because we need to recognise that from public policy and political perspective, climate change is hard – the causes (burning fossil fuels and reducing carbon sinks) are distant from the impacts geographically and temporarily. Its solutions practically are many and the policies needed often complex.
Not to mention the fact that Australia has a powerful fossil fuel lobby and, in each of these moments, it took advantage of the disagreement, disconnection and lack of understanding to good effect.
Looking forward, we are now presented with both a policy challenge and communications challenges.
First, can those who care about climate unite behind practical solutions and policy options that will be:
- effective at lowering emissions;
- connect with real people’s lives; and
- are easy and compelling for the average person to understand?
I propose five tests or questions that could help us meet these policy and communications challenges:
- Is carbon pollution going down in real terms?
- Can the government point to real-world action and policies that are being implemented now, this year, to lower emissions that are commensurate with the scale of the problem?
- Does the government have a plan to fully decarbonise every sector of the economy – electricity, transport, industry, buildings, agriculture and land use? And ones that address the biggest opportunities and threats, for example a renewable export plan and a bushfire plan?
- Do these plans deliver co-benefits in each sector that make people’s lives better? For example, creating new jobs, new industries, healthier and more liveable? homes, less traffic congestion, lower electricity bills and less air pollution.
- Is the government or policy reducing and removing support for fossil fuels and/or other causes of climate change?
The basic idea that underpins these tests is that actually to address climate change we need a plan, or in reality multiple plans.
For too long, climate policy insiders and commentators have been obsessed with carbon pricing. Carbon prices, like other policies can be well designed and effective, or badly designed and ineffective. But whether a carbon price is well designed or not, it’s only one tool in the policy toolkit for decarbonising Australia. Other tools include regulatory changes, investment in research and development, new standards, support for new markets and so forth. A plan is needed for each sector of the Australian economy that brings together these different policy levers or tools and different actors to do the hard work of decarbonisation. Work, that the climate science says is urgently required but, if done right, could lead to a better, more prosperous Australia.
The good news is we are starting to see different organisations calling for a plan. For example, WWF-Australia is calling for a climate plan and have done the research needed to communicate it to mainstream Australia. Farmers for Climate Action are calling for the development of a climate and agriculture strategy. The Climate and Health Alliance is advocating for a climate and health plan. While, Renew, the Australian Council of Social Service, the Energy Efficiency Council and many others are working on a plan for existing buildings that is starting to gain traction. The good news is all of these organisations are building diverse coalitions, talking about the non-environmental benefits that can be delivered by acting on climate in their respective sectors.
Australian’s trust in its political leadership is at an all-time low, perhaps this is a moment that leaders across all states and territories to redeem our faith in politics and end the climate wars, with the humble task of drawing up a plan.
- Nicky Ison is the energy transition manager at WWF-Australia and a research associate at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney
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