Distrust as Australia Launches New Climate Plan

A coal loading site in New South Wales.
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The New York Times reported that Australia released a new climate plan in advance of the international climate summit that is taking place in Glasgow this week. However, the plan does little to curb existing emissions.

In recent years. Australia has been singled out as a bad actor on climate change. It is the third largest exporter of fossil fuels in the world. Plus Australia has been blamed for the failure of a variety of international agreements on climate change including the 2019 talks at the United Nations and the 2019 agreement at the Pacific Islands Forum.

Australia's new plan focuses on using technology to transform energy use in the country and to capture carbon. However, there is no discussion about cutting back on coal or natural gas use. Plus, there is no discussion about cutting exports of fossil fuels. 

One of the major critiques that I have about green energy is that globally, it has just added to our ability to produce energy without really cutting back on fossil fuel use around the world. Thus, overall, the world has seen increases in fossil fuel use while we have increased green energy use. In other words, we are using far more energy than we did in the past. Australia's approach is just more of the same. 

Any real discussion on greenhouse gas reduction without discussing fossil fuel use reduction is not really credible. While many developed nations have cut fossil fuel use, many others have increased it. This is why global agreements are so important and why Australia's efforts are not received well. They may succeed in using technology to reduce greenhouse gases internally (although many doubt that the current government is earnest in this goal), but unless they stop exporting coal and natural gas, they are responsible for significant amounts of greenhouse gases.