Bill Shorten urged to declare climate emergency if Labor wins

Peter Garrett urges Bill Shorten to declare climate emergency if Labor wins
Former environment minister calls for creation of ‘war’ cabinet committee to plot transition to zero carbon, Guardian, Katharine Murphy Political editor @murpharoo 9 May 2019 The former environment minister Peter Garrett has urged an incoming Labor government to convene a climate emergency summit to plot a transition to zero carbon, and create a super department aligned to Treasury, like the Department of Post War Reconstruction after the second world war, to implement the transition…….

Garrett said if Shorten wins next weekend, parliament should expedite the passage of Labor’s climate policies and leave open the prospect of ramping up those measures after making structural changes to manage the risks of climate change. He also challenged Shorten to declare an immediate moratorium on future coal, oil and gas developments – which is not what Labor is proposing this campaign. ……

“Internationally, Australia needs to return to the table with a proactive and constructive stance to advancing global action. It is nothing short of scandalous that as a first-world nation with high per-capita emissions, exporting coal at the volumes we do, we have been a laggard and spoiler in international climate negotiations whenever the Coalition has been in office.

“History will judge our role in this period harshly.” Garrett said it was imperative that an incoming government strengthen Australia’s relationships across the Pacific and south-east Asian sphere with cooperative policies and action on climate as the primary driver…….

Garrett’s intervention comes as new polling from the Lowy Institutereinforces what politicians from all sides have been saying since the start of the year – that 2019 is the climate change election.

A majority of Australians in the new Lowy poll nominate global warming as a critical threat, with 64% of the sample ranking climate change number one on a list of 12 threats to Australia’s national interests, up six points from last year’s survey and a jump of 18 points since 2014.

The 2019 result is the first time climate has topped the list of threats since Lowy began the research in 2006.

The Lowy result is consistent with private research undertaken by environmental groups and by the major political parties, which suggest climate change is surfacing as a concern in parts of the country normally sanguine about the issue.

The new poll comes as a shocking new report from the United Nations this week found that biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, with one million species at risk of extinction, and human populations in jeopardy if the trajectory is not reversed. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/09/peter-garrett-urges-bill-shorten-to-declare-climate-emergency-if-labor-wins