<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/greens-leader-attacks-business-lobby-modelling-on-emission-cuts-vows-to-get-shit-done-on-climate/>
"New Greens leader Larissa Waters has launched a withering attack on the main
Australian business lobby over its modelling for the country’s emission
reduction targets, and promised to put pressure on Labor to aim for a strong
climate action.
Waters’ comments, in her first major speech to the renewable energy industry
since taking over as leader of the Australian Greens in May, follow the release
of modelling from the Business Council of Australia last week which counted
more than half a trillion dollar in costs, but not a single dollar in benefits,
from a range of 2035 targets.
“We literally can’t afford to ignore the climate crisis,” Waters said, as the
Labor government prepares to announce its 2035 emissions reduction target
following the receipt of advice from the Climate Change Authority.
The CCA is expected to deliver a range of options, or an optional range, and
has openly canvassed 65 to 75 per cent emission reduction cuts for 2035, below
2005 levels.
Environmental groups, including the Greens, argue that Australia must aim for
net zero by 2035, instead of 2050, to keep in line with efforts to cap global
warming below 2°C.
Business lobbies, such as the BCA, largely dominated by corporates with deep
fossil fuel interests, are pushing for weaker targets below 60 per cent,
although one informal group of 350 businesses led by Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue
Metals has pushed for a minimum target of a 75 per cent cut in emissions by
2035.
The Fortescue-led group released modelling by Deloitte that showed Australia’s
GDP would be $370 billion better off by 2035 with a 75 per cent emissions
reduction target, compared to a weaker target of 65 per cent, and found it
would create an estimated 69,000 jobs in renewable industries.
“The thing to know about targets is that they are a zero sum game. Someone wins
and someone loses,” Waters says, according to a copy of her speech released
before her appearance at the Smart Energy Council summit in Brisbane on
Tuesday.
“With a high Australian target, we all win with a safe climate and new economic
opportunities open up. Your clean businesses win, your customers win and your
suppliers win. Coal and gas exporters lose.
“With a low Australian target, international coal and gas corporations win,
their profits go up while Australians are the ones who have to pay for it in
insurance premium increases, in cleaning up after floods and cyclones and in
lost profits for farmers and more expensive food for us.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
