By agreeing to pass the safeguard mechanism reforms, Labor’s signature climate policy, the Greens have helped greenwash the continued expansion of fossil fuels.
How do you design a climate policy that the largest polluters will back? The Albanese government could write a book on the subject.
At the height of the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, ash from Australia’s scorched forests coated glaciers in New Zealand, and smoke drifted across the Pacific Ocean to Chile. It was a moment in which Australia’s climate crimes cast a pall over the world.
“Green banking” is one of the ethical consumption fads of the day. No-one should be under the illusion, however, that it’s any more able to combat climate change and environmental destruction than any of the other failed consumer-oriented approaches of recent decades.
Indian corporate giant Adani Enterprises recently announced plans to use coal from its Carmichael mine in Queensland to fuel a giant new plastic production plant in Gujarat. The announcement shocked many—after all, Adani and its Australian backers long argued that the coal from the mine was needed to produce cheap electricity that could help lift millions of people in India and surrounding nations out of poverty.