10 April 2021
The heat is on for Australia’s government to create a fabricated impression of climate success and sell that fabrication to the world to stave off criticism. Last month, there was a full-effort trial run of this process during the election campaign of Australia’s former finance minister and now new Secretary-General of the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mathias Cormann. That mostly involved painful contortions of Australia’s emissions data and climate targets, and it seems that it worked pretty well for Cormann.
US President Joe Biden, as I wrote this week, is very likely to announce a significant increase in their 2030 climate ambition – possibly, a doubling. Australia’s PM Scott Morrison is giving millimetres of movement on a 2050 target, but is absolutely certain to give no room whatsoever to a shift in Australia’s 2030 climate target.
âItâs fascinating that the Morrison government should attempt to disinter the Climate Change Authority â which has been a zombie organisation for several years â but itâs brought it back to oversee its retro greenhouse gas policy,â he said.
âI donât think it will have any credibility at all other than with the crypto deniers within the government.â
Economist John Quiggin, another former member of the authority, said the appointments were âdisappointing but unsurprisingâ.
He claimed that after trying but failing to abolish the authority when Tony Abbott was prime minister, the government had effectively achieved its goal by âappointing representatives of the leading opponents of effective climate actionâ.
Taylor names gas industry advocates to Climate Change Authority board reneweconomy.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reneweconomy.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Grant King to overhaul the Climate Change Authority
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Former Business Council of Australia president and energy executive Grant King, who championed the $80 billion LNG export industry in central Queensland, will overhaul the Climate Change Authority to drive Australia’s emissions reduction – only two years after the Morrison government almost scrapped the government body.
Mr King, the former long-serving chief executive of Origin Energy who has been appointed as chairman of the Climate Change Authority, believes the move to reduce emissions should not come at the expense of jobs or economic growth.
Former Origin Energy boss Grant King’s four-year appointment is unlikely to be welcomed by environmental groups given Mr King’s background in the fossil-fuel industry.