Antinuclear

Moving away from coal: essential for any climate agreement

Any climate change agreement must include moving away from coal: Richard Di Natale, ABC Radio AM  Michael Brissenden reported this story on Thursday, December 10, 2015 MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: The Green’s leader Richard Di Natale is also in Paris and he joins me on the line now…..

RICHARD DI NATALE: I think the feeling here in Paris is that absolutely there will be an agreement.

The question really is, is the agreement going to put us on the footing to ensure that we continue to make progress – and on that front, one of the disappointing things is that Australia really hasn’t taken the sort of level of ambition that’s necessary to be able to drive the change that we need to see both in terms of tackling climate change but also just in terms of transitioning our economy to put it on a footing so that we can take advantage of the huge opportunities that exist in the renewable energy sector.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: Okay, we’ll talk about Australia’s negotiating position in a minute but do you think that the deal, if it is struck, will it be enough to keep temperatures to two degrees?

RICHARD DI NATALE: Uh, no.

I mean, what you’ll see is that the targets that people are taking, the various nations are taking, will lock us into a trajectory of three degrees unless they’re revised, and so that’s why the review mechanism is just so critical and there is, again, a sense that there will be a review mechanism built in.

It looks at this stage that it will be somewhere around 2023. And you have to remember that’s still eight years away so from the perspective of national governments, they need to be reviewing their targets inside that time frame.

Australia again needs to ensure that it does that because its target won’t get us anywhere near two degrees – and that’s why each nation needs to lock in within its own framework a review. And I think Australia must commit to a review in 2017 after the election.

But one of the more positive things is it looks like there may be a reference to a 1.5 degree target over the longer term – and if we are to do that, then clearly there are some major changes that need to happen both here in Australia and within other domestic economies.

Here in Australia, that’s really a prescription for ending the use of coal both in terms of coal exports and transitioning generation away from coal-fired power generation towards renewable energy. …..

I  think you’ll see Australia will shift a little. I think they’ll have to. Australia can’t risk being one of the parties that, you know, is responsible for sinking an agreement. And so there will be some movement, I’m sure of that, and I suspect you’ll also see a little bit of movement from developing nations as well.

MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: How has Australia’s negotiating position been received generally?

RICHARD DI NATALE: Well, to be frank, I think there was a significant relief that Tony Abbott is not here and he’s not playing a spoiler role – so I think Australia has been given some credit simply for not actively undermining the agreement.  There was widespread consternation yesterday when Julie Bishop again reiterated the nonsensical position that expanding our coal exports and coal more generally is a pathway to poverty alleviation. I think, in fact, Australia received the fossil of the day award, which is an award given to those nations that don’t play a constructive role in the negotiations. ….http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4369344.htm

December 11, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News