Extract from The Guardian
Queensland MP writes report urging Coalition to increase efforts to reduce emissions, especially in Covid-19 recovery response
The Morrison government’s Great Barrier Reef envoy, Warren Entsch, has urged fellow Liberal MPs to do more on climate change policy, including pushing for greater global action, after the world heritage site suffered a third mass bleaching event in five years.
In a report to the environment minister, Sussan Ley, Entsch said climate change was having a growing impact on the reef and was unequivocally its greatest long-term threat. He said he feared that programs to address greenhouse gas emissions might be dropped as the government rationalised spending in response to the Covid recession, and called for it to take another path.
The northern Queensland MP said Australia did great work in protecting the reef from local threats and was globally recognised as “the best reef managers in the world”, but the country’s record on climate change fell “short of attaining similar levels of prestige”.
“We must recognise that these two elements go hand-in-hand – that is, the actions we continue to take in water management initiatives are definitely worthwhile pursuits, but they can only do so much,” he said. “By the turn of the century, these actions in isolation – while entirely valiant – will be all for nought if the world has not also effectively limited anthropogenic warming.”
Entsch said the Covid-19 recovery would be a mammoth undertaking, with all aspects of government funding likely to be under review, but policies and programs that dealt with climate change were of great importance and should not be deemed “less essential”.
“While I agree that we need to shore up the economic situation and lead a growth-oriented response, I believe that in doing so we must not accept a scaled-back response to climate change,” he wrote. “If anything, it should be greater.”
Entsch told Guardian Australia he had “a very strong view that we can do better” on climate. He said he agreed with people from across the spectrum who believed Covid recovery was a unique opportunity for policy reform, and called for bold ideas that went beyond the “politically safe and expedient” and that would “propel us forward in this brave new world”.
“Whether it’s overhauling taxation and fiscal federalism, a faster transition to renewables, reviewing the viability of fossil fuel subsidies, increasing support for low emissions industries and perhaps even reconsidering the nuclear moratorium – the list goes on,” he said in the report.
“There’s plenty of policy areas that are inefficient and ripe for generational change. In developing our vision for a post-pandemic Australia, I believe absolutely everything must be on the table.”
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority confirmed in March that the natural landmark had suffered an unprecedented third mass coral bleaching in five years. It followed a government-backed assessment last year downgrading the reef’s outlook to “very poor”. About half the 2,300km reef system’s shallow-water corals bleached and died in 2016 and 2017 following inflated temperatures.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found published evidence suggested a majority of tropical coral reefs would disappear even if heating was limited to 1.5C and would be “at very high risk” at 1.2C. The globe has warmed about 1C since the industrial revolution.
Entsch was appointed special envoy for the reef after the 2019 election. He acknowledged in the report that he was talking to the wrong minister – that Ley was not responsible for emissions reduction policy – but said this did not absolve him “of the need to raise this important issue” with her. He would also “continue to make representations on the subject” to the emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor.
He said Australia’s action on climate would not on its own make an appreciable difference to global temperatures but it was part of a group of countries, each responsible for less than 2% of global emissions, that together released about 40% of the gases warming the planet.
“If any country in this cohort should seek to abdicate responsibility for their fair share, others may be inclined to do the same, bringing about what is known as a ‘prisoner’s dilemma’, ultimately resulting in suboptimal emissions reductions,” the MP for Leichhardt said.
“I believe it is incumbent upon us as custodians of this great natural wonder to protect it. In doing so we must work with other parties to the Paris agreement, encourage greater ambition to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and ensure warming is limited to well below 2C.
“Without sufficient action we risk the long-term sustainability of the reef, the economic value it provides our nation and the 64,000 jobs that rely upon it.”
Guardian Australia asked Ley and Taylor for the government’s response. Ley said Entsch was doing “an outstanding job” in working with communities and stakeholders on the reef, and had highlighted the importance of investing in the environment and “maintaining strategies to reduce global emissions”.
“That is exactly what we are doing,” she said, listing funding for environmental science programs, national parks upgrades, native species bushfire recovery, reef protection and the $2bn climate solutions fund.
Australia has a 2030 target of cutting emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels, less than what scientists say would be its fair share in meeting the goals of the Paris agreement. It has rebuffed calls for it to join other countries, businesses and Australian states in setting a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
National emissions were largely flat in the six-and-a-half years under the Coalition before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down significant parts of the economy, but fell slightly in the most recent greenhouse accounts.
The Australian Marine Conservation Society applauded Entsch’s advocacy for the government doing more on global heating. Reef campaigner Elise Springett said: “As custodians of our reef, Australia must lead and advocate for a climate-focused recovery, pulling our weight in the global effort to combat climate change.”
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