Sydney, 27 April 2016: The ALP’s climate policy, announced today, does not go far enough to protect our environment from the rapid and unpredictable damage of global warming, Greenpeace Australia Pacific warned today.
“Now is not the time for half-measures on climate change,” said Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Čašule. “The Great Barrier Reef is dying before our eyes. We are experiencing record temperatures, month after month.”
Greenpeace last week released its Exporting climate change, killing the Reef report, which found that Australia’s carbon emissions exports, via the coal mining industry, are almost double its domestic emissions.
“The ALP has differentiated itself from the Coalition with encouraging policy positions on renewables and domestic energy, but it has failed to address Australia’s biggest contribution to dangerous global warming: our expanding coal exports. To meet the ambition of the Paris climate agreement, over 90 per cent of Australia’s coal will need to stay in the ground. The time for weak policies, written under the shadow of the fossil fuel industry, is over,” Dr. Čašule said.
“While a clear improvement on the status quo, Labor’s domestic emissions target itself remains insufficient to prevent dangerous levels of warming. The ALP has also missed the opportunity to deliver a bold, powerful policy to end taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels once and for all.”
Greenpeace is calling on Australians to vote for a sustainable, Coal Free future in the upcoming federal election.
“Elections are always about power,” said Dr. Čašule. “This election will be about what kind of power Australians want, now and into the future. It’s time to leave dirty 19th-century coal behind, and embrace the 21st century’s clean, renewable energy. It’s time for a Coal Free Australia that will protect our environment, our climate, and the Great Barrier Reef.”
– SAT News Service
