The COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow has failed to requisitely respond to the worsening Climate Crisis with national action pledges promising a catastrophic plus 2.4 degrees Centigrade temperature rise. However COP26 has at least identified the worst culprits. Thus, unveiled at COP26, the 2022 Climate Change Performance Index has ranked climate criminal Australia worst in the world out of 64 polluting countries for climate policy.
The 2022 Climate Change Performance Index (2022 CCPI) covers 64 countries generating 92% of global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and ranks them from Very High to Very Low across 4 categories – Climate Policy, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, Renewables and Energy Use [1, 2]. Australia is ranked Very Low for performance in all 4 key areas and was the only country to score zero (0) on Climate Policy:
Re Climate Action Policy the 2022 CCPI ranks climate criminal Australia the very worst at 64th out of 64 countries. Ranking behind Australia in the Very Low category are Algeria (63), Brazil (62), Bulgaria (61), Belarus (60), Hungary (59), Russian Federation (58), Saudi Arabia (57), Poland (56), Mexico (55), Kazakhstan (54), Malaysia (53), Romania (52), Czech Republic (51), and Turkey (50).
Re Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, the 2022 CCPI ranks climate criminal Australia the 56th out of 64 countries, and mid-way among the other Very Low category countries of the Czech Republic (49), China (50), Poland (51), Latvia (52), Russian Federation (53), Slovenia (54), Ireland (55), the US (57), Malaysia (58), Canada (59), Korea (60), Saudi Arabia (61), Taiwan (62), Kazakhstan (63), and Iran (64).
Re Renewables the 2022 CCPI ranks climate criminal Australia 52nd out of 63 countries, and the best out of the other Very Low Category countries of the US (53), Canada (54), Saudi Arabia (55), Egypt (56), Belarus (57), Taiwan (58), Kazakhstan (59), Algeria (60), Mexico (61), Russian Federation (62) and Iran (63).
Re Energy Use the 2022 CCPI ranks climate criminal Australia 54th out of 64 countries, and among the other Very Low category countries of Chile (50), Hungary (51), Belgium (52), Turkey (53), Luxembourg (55), China (56), Taiwan (57), Saudi Arabia (58), United States (59), Iran (60), Korea (61), Finland (62), Kazakhstan (63), and Canada (64).
Substantial short-term nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are required to meet the general goal of “50% net zero pollution by 2050”. Thus it is estimated that GHG emissions must fall by about 45% this decade for global temperature rise to be kept below 1.5C. While some have optimistically predicted temperature rises of 1.8-1.9C based on long-term national commitments made at COP26, analysis by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) of short-term promises made at COP26 indicated a catastrophic temperature rise of plus 2.4C by 2100 and a 2.7C rise based on current policies [3].
My personal feeling, based on increasing gas and oil use and continuing massive coal use at the current level, is that plus 1.5C will happen in the next 10 years and that plus 2C is essentially unavoidable. Indeed but for the global dimming effect of sulphate and other aerosols from burning coal it is estimated that world would already have achieved plus 2C [4]. Nevertheless we are obliged to do everything we can to make the future “less bad” for future generations. In 2021 I published a huge book entitled “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” that concluded with a summary of 38 partial solutions to the Climate Emergency [5, 6]. Among those partial solutions were resolute commitments to punish climate criminal people, parties, corporations and countries disproportionately responsible for GHG pollution.
Climate change-impacted Island Nations, tropical countries, mega-delta countries (like Bangladesh) and indeed the World will punish such climate criminal countries. As outlined above, Australia ranks worst out of 64 countries for climate action policies, and is also in the Very Low achievement category in relation to GHG pollution, uptake of renewable energy, and energy usage.
The corrupt, mendacious, racist, anti-science, and climate criminal National Party-Liberal Party Coalition that rules climate criminal Australia has succeeded in helping to sabotage the COP26 Climate Change Conference (as it has all previous climate conferences) in the following 30 key ways:
(1). Racist ignoring of “per capita” GHG pollution and the right of the global South to a decent life. Australia indulges in dishonest and racist ignoring of the right of Developing Countries with relatively low “GDP per capita” and “GHG pollution per capita” (e.g. India and China) to achieve modest socio-economic improvement for all their citizens while also achieving “zero net pollution” 20 years later (India) and 10 years later (China) than rich Developed Countries that aim for “zero net pollution by 2050”. In terms of population, “GDP per capita” and “tonnes CO2-e per person per year” (2016 estimates with land use considered and assuming a GWP for CH4 of 80 in a 20 year time frame) we can compare China (1,400 million, $11,800 and 7.4), India (1,390 million, $2,190, and 2.1) and Australia (26 million, $63,000 and 53 or 116 with its exports included) [7, 8].
(2). Australia totally rejects a Price on Carbon. The damage-related Carbon Price is $200 per tonne CO2-e but according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the global average applied Carbon Price is a mere $2 per tonne CO2-e [9]. Australia’s Carbon Debt from non-application of a Carbon Price is $5 trillion and increasing at $600 billion per year, but at COP26 Australia insultingly and dishonestly offered a mere $1 billion over the next 5 years to help Pacific Island Nations “cope” with existentially-threatening global warming for which Australia is disproportionately responsible. The IMF projections indicated that non-adoption of its modest Carbon Price would kill 4 million people by 2030 [9].
(3). Australia rejected the multi-national COP26 plan for cutting CH4 emissions 30% by 2030. Australia has refused to join the numerous countries committing to a 30% reduction in methane (CH4) emissions by 2030, with the pathetically weak Labor Opposition Leader Anthony “Albo” Albanese spinelessly agreeing with this morally bankrupt Coalition Government decision. Australia is a world leader in CH4-generating coal exploitation, gas exploitation and livestock production [10].
(4) Australia supports the COP26 ban on “deforestation” but is a world leader in land clearing. Australia’s pledge to end deforestation is fraught with trust deficiencies (with look-the-other -way Australia ruled by the instinctively mendacious Coalition) and definitional problems relating to what is “deforestation” and what is “clearing scrub” or “clearing vegetation” . Australia is among world leaders for land clearing [10] and is the only Developed country on the world list of deforestation hotspots [11]. The burning images of Australia from the recent drought were of utterly denuded land to the horizon and rivers run dry to water commercial monocultures. Historically Australia was based on the criminal dispossession and extermination of the Indigenous people (genocide) followed by massive land clearing and destruction of the unique flora and fauna (speciescide and ecocide).
(5). Australia has an unchanged 26-28% off 2005 by 2030 target. Climate criminal Australia refuses any increase on its present paltry “26-28% off 2005 pollution by 2030” . However many comparable countries are offering”50% off by 2030”, and the Australia Greens demand “net zero emissions by 2035” and a “75% cut in GHG pollution by 2030” [12]. Timid and election strategy-driven Labor won’t yet commit to a 2030 target.
(6). Pentecostal Christian Australian PM Morrison believes in “miracles” and has “faith” in a “technological miracle”. PM Morrison refuses to sensibly specify how its “promised” pollution cuts will be achieved. Fervent Pentecostal Christian Australian PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison declared “I have always believed in miracles” after being unexpectedly re-elected in 2019, and now “promises” that the “net zero by 2050” “target” will be met by “technology not taxes” i.e. by as yet unknown and undreamed of technological “miracles”.
(7). The Australian Government lies about “gas is cleaner than coal”. The mendacious Australian Government purveys utterly false spin about “gas is cleaner” than coal. In reality natural gas is mostly methane (CH4) which leaks and has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 105 relative to the same mass of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and with aerosol impacts considered, this meaning that at a systemic leakage of about 3% (as in the US), exploiting gas is worse GHG-wise than exploiting coal [10, 13, 14].
(8). The Australia Government lies about “renewable, clean and safe” nuclear energy. The Australian Government falsely claims that nuclear energy is safe, clean and renewable, whereas in actuality uranium and thorium ores are finite and thus not renewable. Further, excepting the actual fission process, in a Carbon Economy all parts of the conventional nuclear process, from mining to disposal of waste, generate CO2. Fast breeder reactors make highly efficient use of uranium through the use of unmoderated (and hence fast) ) neutrons to breed fissile plutonium, but are expensive, and have had limited uptake due to the immense security and human rights concerns arising from a plutonium economy.
(9) The Australia Government promotes the expensive Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) pipedream. The Australia Government proposed during COP26 to invest $500 million into CCS research, falsely claiming that “fossil fuel-based energy is clean if coupled with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)” . In reality CCS is an expensive pipe-dream, does not remove all the CO2, and is yet to be applied commercially on a large scale.
(10). The mendacious Australian Government falsely claims that Australia is meeting its pollution reduction commitments. In 2021 Australia ranked second worst in the Developed World after the US for “climate policy” and seventh worst for climate action. The 2022 Climate Change Performance Index ranked climate criminal Australia worst in the world out of 64 polluting countries for climate policy and Very Poor in 3 other areas [1].
(11). Australia is considering 100 new fossil fuel projects to increase annual GHG pollution by 1.7 Gt CO2-e. According to The Guardian: “Australia [is] considering more than 100 fossil fuel projects that could produce 5% of global industrial emissions. The coal and gas works, if approved, would result in a nearly 30% increase in emissions within Australia” [15]. Of this increase, 0.146 Gt CO2-e would be Domestic and 1.6 Gt CO2-e would derive from combustion of Exported coal and gas [15]. The Guardian further reports: “Australian fossil fuel projects given $36.7bn in foreign public financing over a decade [2010-2020]. Renewable energy received $3.3bn in the same period between 2010 and 2020 but researchers say that gap has narrowed” [16].
(12). The National Party of Australia’s ruling Coalition is fervently committed to fossil fuel exploitation and methanogenic livestock. The National Party is the powerful and deeply reactionary minor party in the Australian National Party-Liberal Party Coalition Government, and is intransigently and fervently committed to exploitation of fossil fuels and methanogenic livestock. With the Liberal Party it has fought tooth and nail over decades to block action on climate change, and only agreed to the far-off “zero emissions by 2050” policy just before COP26 and on the basis of secret deals e.g. the National MP Keith Pitt who had recently proposed a $250 billion subsidy scheme for new coal and gas operations was rewarded pre-COP26 by being made Minister for Resources.
(13). The Australian Coalition Government’s absurd gas-led post-pandemic recovery. The Coalition is adamant that Australia will have a post-COVID-19 Pandemic gas-led recovery, and that in applying measures to cut carbon emissions there will be no damage to Australia’s huge coal extraction, gas extraction and methanogenic livestock production industries. As summarized in (7) above, at 3% systemic leakage (that is observed in the US), gas exploitation is worse than coal exploitation GHG-wise [10, 13, 14].
(14). Australia is committed to leading the world in coal and gas exports and is among world leaders in 16 areas of climate criminality. Australia leads the world in coal, almost leads in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports, and is among world leading countries in 16 areas of climate criminality, namely (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution, (2) live methanogenic livestock exports, (3) natural gas exports, (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), (5) coal exports, (6) land clearing, deforestation and ecocide, (7) speciescide or species extinction, (8) coral reef destruction, (9) whale killing and extinction threat through global warming impacting on krill stocks, (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance, (11) per capita Carbon Debt, (12) ultimately GHG generating iron ore exports, (13) climate change inaction, (14) climate genocide and approach towards omnicide and terracide, (15) increasing Domestic GHG pollution despite Paris commitments to lower GHG pollution, and (16) complicity in 10 million annual air pollution deaths from burning carbon fuels, Australia’s share being 75,000 overseas and 10,000 Domestically [10].
(15). Climate terrorist and carbon terrorist Australia resolutely ignores its complicity in 10 million annual air pollution deaths. About 10 million people die annually from the long-term effects of air pollution of which Australia is responsible for 75,000 overseas and 10,000 within Australia [9, 17]. It is estimated that 1.4 million Indians will die from the life-time and full-scale operation of the Adani coal mine in Queensland, Australia [18]. By way of comparison, utterly evil jihadi non-state terrorists have killed 4 Australians in the last 20 years [19].
(16) Australia ignores all but 7 of 38 partial solutions to the climate crisis. In 2021 I published a huge book entitled “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” that concluded with a summary of 38 partial Solutions to the Climate Emergency [5]. Unfortunately the mendacious, neoliberal, anti-science, anti-environment, corrupt and climate criminal Australian Coalition Government in its latest pre-COP26 pronouncements ignores all but 7 of these Solutions, and also ignores serious associated caveats (e.g. refusal to mandate measures, effective climate change denialism through inaction, spin and lies about what is “clean” and “renewable”, limits to re-afforestation, and the unfortunate reality that hydrogen (H2) can be a potent “indirect GHG” by scavenging hydroxyl radicals involved in removing atmospheric CH4) [20].
(17). Australia trying to block UNESCO coral report reference to +1.5C. Australia is attempting to block a UNESCO recommendation that countries should try to keep global warming to 1.5C to protect world heritage sites from the impacts of the climate crisis [21]. In 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report that details the numerous bad outcomes of a global +1.5 degree Centigrade (+1.5C) of warming versus the catastrophic outcomes from a +2C rise, notably a further 70-90% decline of coral reefs at +1.5C versus more than 99% loss at +2C [22, 23]. The latest IPCC report reveals the increasing seriousness of the worsening climate crisis, and the remorseless Australian Government denial must be regarded with extreme disapprobation.
(18). The mendacious Australian Coalition Government calls “dirty” and “lower emissions” “clean”. The endlessly lying Australian Coalition Government has announced that it will give a $500 million grant and change the legislated rules to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) (that it formerly sought to pervert or abolish) to invest in the dirty, expensive technology of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) that has proved simply too expensive for large-scale adoption [24]. The Australian Government hopes that corporations will add a further $500 million to this fund.
(19). Idiotic proclamation and immediate violation of a “technology not taxation” post-COP26 climate policy. No sooner had the mendacious Australian Coalition Government announced its idiotic “technology not taxation” post-COP26 climate policy than it announced that it would spend $500 million of taxpayer’s money on investigating dirty “clean coal” and “Carbon Capture and Storage” (CCS) [24].
(20). Dishonest “socialism for the rich” post-COP26 electric vehicle (EV) policy. During the 2019 Federal elections the Australian Coalition Government declared that the Labor Opposition’s plan for boosting Electric Vehicles (EVs) would destroy the “Aussie weekend”, falsely claiming that EVs could not pull caravans or boats. Fresh from COP26 the Coalition Government has announced that it would commit $250 million to help fund a huge roll-out of 60,000 public and domestic EV charging stations [25]. However because EVs are so expensive that the poor will be stuck with fossil fuel-driven cars, this government scheme amounts to another massive subsidizing of the rich (de rigeur for the pro-One Percenter, neoliberal Coalition). Labor wants subsidies and tighter pollution controls to drive up EV uptake that is 2% of annual car sales in Australia but 75% in Norway [25].
(21). Endless Orwellian lying, obfuscation, un-reason and gross semantic violation over “clean”, “cleaner” and “low emissions” technology. The neoliberal Coalition is simply committed to outright lying and blatant violation of the meaning of words that makes intelligent debate impossible and reduces the political debate to tribal loyalty akin to which football team you support. Thus PM Scott “Scomo” Morrison (aka Scum-o, Scam-o, Scheme-o, Skim-o and Smirk-o) is deservedly facing a barrage of accurate accusations that he tells untruths i.e. that he lies. Former Coalition PM Malcolm Turnbull has declared that Scomo has “a reputation for lying”. French President Emmanuel Macron famously stated what he thought of the proposition that Morrison is a liar: “I don’t think, I know”. Scomo’s most fundamental lie to date is his denial that he has ever lied in public office [26]. The most dangerous Coalition and Morrison falsehoods relate to claiming that manifestly “dirty” and assertedly “low emissions technologies” are “clean” or “cleaner”. Thus gas is not “clean” but actually dirtier GHG-wise than coal [13, 14]; “dirty energy” involving incomplete CCS is not “clean” or “cleaner” but simply “dirty”; hydrogen generated using “dirty energy” or dirty coal and gas is “dirty” and not “clean”. This bald-faced Coalition lying now extends to rejecting former policies and adopting emasculated versions of Labor or Green policies on climate action (e.g. re “zero net emissions by 2050” and EVs [25].
(22). Refusal to announce how exactly it will achieve “zero net emissions by 2050”. The Australian Coalition Government has announced during COP26 a highly flawed “plan” for “zero net emissions by 2050” that only gets to an asserted 85% reduction in emissions, and absurdly rejects the fundamental requirement for a full Price on Carbon [27].
(23). Use of crude pejorative abuse to diminish the science-informed young and professionals proposing rapid and substantial action. Those demanding climate action notably include high school children (who, like Greta Thunberg, are well aware that they will be bequeathed a dying planet), and educated and prosperous professionals (who are well aware of the problem facing their children). The Coalition tells the school strikers to “go back to school” whereas it is actually the ignorant and corrupt Coalition MPs who need to go back to school. The science-informed prosperous professionals are notably found in rich and inner city electorates, but are crudely dismissed by the ignorant and abusive Coalition as “inner city latte-sippers”.
(24). Lying by omission and commission over Australia’s huge Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution. The Australian Government hugely under-estimates Australia’s Domestic and Exported GHG pollution by (a) assuming a Global Warming Potential for CH4 of 25 relative to the same mass of CO2 on a 100 year time frame (whereas it is 105 on a 20 year time frame with aerosol impacts), and (b) ignoring Australia’s huge Exported GHG pollution. Assuming a GWP for CH4 of 25, it is estimated that Australia’s 2019 GHG pollution was 0.526 Gt CO2-e (Domestic) and 3,320 Gt CO2-e ( Domestic plus Exported) for per capita GHG pollution in “tonnes CO2-e per person per year” in 2019 (population 25.4 million) of 20.7 and 130.7, respectively, and Australia’s GHG emissions amounting to 9.4% of the world’s total of 35.3 Gt CO2-e while Australia’s population was only 0.33% of the world’s population of 7.7 billion in 2019. This makes Australia the world’s third largest emitter after China (26.7%) and the US (13%) [28]. In stark contrast, the lying Coalition Government ignores Exported GHGs, and declares that Australia only contributes 1% of the world’s GHG emissions. A person who gives a psychotic child a loaded gun is responsible for the consequences.
I have made an independent estimate. If we assume a GWP for methane of 105 on a 20 year timeframe and with aerosol impacts considered, in 2020 Australia’s annual per capita GHG pollution (t CO2-e per person per year) taking fugitive emissions into account is 1,423 Mt CO2-e/25 million persons = 56.9 (considering Domestic pollution only) and 137.5 (considering Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution) (2021 estimation [10]). By way of comparison, 137.5 t per person per year puts Australia third in the world after Belize (366.9) and, Guyana (203.1). In t CO2-e per person per year China is 7.4 and India 2.1 (2015 analysis) [7, 8, 10]. This estimate of 3,438 Mt Domestic and Exported GHG by Australia corresponds to 3.438 Gt x 100%/ 63.8Gt = 5.4% of the world total despite Australia only having 0.33% of the world’s population [29].
(25). Ignoring the right to life and property of Island Nations and Indigenous Australians. Australia is an island continent and unlike tropical Island nations is not existentially threatened by rising sea levels from climate change. Climate criminal Australia simply ignored the desperate pleas of the tropical Island Nations (including Australia’s Torres Strait Islanders) at COP26. Similarly, White Australia is rich, can afford air conditioning, and ignores the direct threat to impoverished Indigenous Australians of deadly heat stress in urban and remote communities at temperatures approaching and exceeding 50C [30].
(26). Australian commitment to mindless neoliberalism-driven economic and population growth. Over-consumption of the world’s finite resources is a crucial concern. Massive harm has already occurred due to continuing carbon pollution, population growth and economic growth and it is clear that zero growth in these areas is insufficient – there must be negative carbon pollution (atmospheric CO2 draw-down to 300 ppm CO2), negative population growth (population decline by about 50%) and negative economic growth (degrowth of about 50%) to halt and reverse this worsening disaster [31]. Australia has had a long term commitment to economic growth through largely immigration-based population growth. Unfortunately the Australian Coalition Government remains committed to this environmental Ponzi Scheme.
(27). The Australian Coalition Government is to subsidize 2 new gas-fired power stations. While the whole world (except for climate criminal Australia) knows that fossil fuel use must end in the coming 3 decades, Australia is crazily committed to fossil fuel experts and a “gas-led economic recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic. 8 years ago I gave expert evidence at a major court case against approval of a gas-fired power station in Gatton, Queensland. The citizens of Gatton lost the case, and my evidence was discounted as against “received wisdom”. However I put my months of dedicated pro bono publico work to good use in an article entitled “Expert Witness Testimony To Stop Gas-Fired Power Plant Installation” [32]. The climate criminal Australian Government has promised to underwrite two new gas power stations, one being in Gatton, Queensland [33].
(28). The Australian Coalition Government’s shameless Big Lying about a “plan” for a non-achieved “net zero by 2050”. The Australian Coalition Government has produced a spin-based “plan” for achieving “85% off by 2050” that critically refuses to adopt a Carbon Price and rejects government mandates, leaving action up to individuals in accord with its libertarian neoliberal ideology. The eminent Climate Council has comprehensibly rejected the government’s “plan”: “The Federal Government’s ‘Plan to Deliver Net Zero’ modelling, released this afternoon, is riddled with flaws; most notably, a failure to meet its own goal of net zero emissions by 2050” [34]. In contrast the International Energy Association (IEA) has developed a detailed action plan for “net zero by 2050”: “Building on the IEA’s unrivalled energy modelling tools and expertise, the Roadmap sets out more than 400 milestones to guide the global journey to net zero by 2050. These include, from today, no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects, and no further final investment decisions for new unabated coal plants. By 2035, there are no sales of new internal combustion engine passenger cars, and by 2040, the global electricity sector has already reached net-zero emissions” [35].
(29). The Australian Government commitment to pointless dirty jobs. The neoliberal Australian Coalition Government sees “employment” simply in dollar outcome terms rather than in terms of social necessity, quality and environmental terms. Thus vital education from early childhood teaching to university teaching is devalued and indeed 40,000 Australian university staff were sacked during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In stark contrast, during the Pandemic the Coalition Government poured hundreds of billions into subsidizing nice but unnecessary tourism, hospitality, and dirty air transport. By ignoring a Carbon Price and Australia’s $600 billion annual Carbon Debt the Australian Government hugely subsidizes dirty and terracidal coal, gas, oil, iron ore and methanogen livestock industries.
(30). Australian Coalition Government un-reason and pointlessness in relation to the future. At the heart of this massive and criminal Coaltion (COALition) betrayal of Australia, Humanity and the Biosphere is entrenched lying, dishonesty and the sheer pointlessness of having only 1 major evident social goal, that of enriching morally vacuous or degenerate One Percenters at the expense of human society and the existentially threatened planet.
As with other neoliberal, Western “ostensible democracies”, Australian democracy has transmuted to a kleptocracy, plutocracy, Murdochracy, corporatocracy, dollarocracy and lobbyocracy in which Big Money purchases people, politicians, parties, policies, votes and hence more power and more private profit. However massive lying by Mainstream presstitutes and greedy GHG-polluting billionaires has now made Australia an idiocracy in which a woefully ignorant and deceived electorate votes for ignorant, corrupt, lying, and climate criminal politicians.
Decent Australians from the Left to the Right are appalled by the very real prospect that the ignorant, mendacious, and climate criminal Australian Government led by PM Scott ”Scomo” Morrison (aka Scum-o, Scheme-o, Scam-o, Skim-o, and Smirk-o) will be re-elected in the forthcoming 2022 elections. Former Australian Coalition PM Malcolm Turnbull and French President Emmanuel Macron have both described Scum-o as a liar, the latter famously saying what he thought of this proposition: “I don’t think, I know”. In the 2019 elections the GHG-polluting mining billionaire Clive Palmer invested A$60 million (a gigantic sum for Australian elections) to help the return of the Coalition Government, which was also backed by the effective climate change denying US Murdoch media empire that has 70% of Australian newspaper readership. The Clive Palmer campaign for 2022 has already begun together with an infantile campaign directed by the Government at young voters and funded by taxpayer money.
COP26 has ended in a disaster involving substantial inaction on the key problem of fossil fuel exploitation but with the positives of many countries signing up to significant decrease in methane pollution and deforestation. The New Scientist: “Nearly 200 countries have made an unprecedented and historic pledge at the COP26 climate summit to speed up the end of fossil fuel subsidies and reduce the use of coal, after India pushed through an 11th hour intervention to weaken the language on coal. Crucially, despite almost a fortnight’s negotiations that ran more than 24 hours late, the 196 countries meeting in Glasgow committed to issuing stronger 2030 climate plans next year in a bid to avert dangerous global warming. Pledges at COP26 are expected to see Earth warm 2.4°C this century, better than the predicted 2.7°C predicted before the summit but still a rise that would bring extreme climate impacts and see countries overshoot their shared goals of 1.5°C and “well below” 2°C” [36].
The COP26 failure effectively confirms that the world has effectively run out of time to avoid a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise. What can decent folk do to minimize massive harm to their children, grandchildren and future generations? Decent Australians must utterly reject the climate criminal Coalition, vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last. Island Nations, tropical countries and an increasingly climate-impacted World will apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), Climate Tariffs, International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions, and International Court of Justice (ICJ) litigations against remorselessly speciescidal, ecocidal and climate criminal countries like Australia. Please disseminate this message to everyone you can.
References.
[1]. “2022 Climate Change Performance Index”, November 2021: https://ccpi.org/wp-content/uploads/CCPI-2022-Results_2021-11-07_A4-1.pdf .
[2]. Graham Readfearn, “Australia ranked last of 60 countries for policy response to climate crisis”, The Guardian, 10 November 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/09/australia-ranked-last-of-60-countries-for-policy-response-to-climate-crisis .
[3]. Fiona Harvey, “COP26: world on track for disastrous heating of more than 2.4C, says key report”, The Guardian, 10 November 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/09/cop26-sets-course-for-disastrous-heating-of-more-than-24c-says-key-report .
[4]. Andrew Glikson, “Inferno: from climate denial to planetary arson”, Countercurrents, 8 September 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/09/inferno-from-climate-denial-to-planetary-arson .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide and Solutions”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2021.
[6]. Gideon Polya, “Summary of “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” by Gideon Polya – Climate Criminal Australia & US Ignore Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions”, Crime & Power, 10 March 2021: https://www.crimeandpower.com/2021/03/10/2021-02-13-summary-of-climate-crisis-climate-genocide-solutions-by-gideon-polya-climate-criminal-australia-us-ignore-climate-crisis-climate-genocide-solutions/ .
[7]. Gideon Polya, “ Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .
[8]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm .
[9]. Gideon Polya, “Australia Rejects IMF Carbon Tax & Preventing 4 Million Pollution Deaths By 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/australia-rejects-imf-carbon-tax-preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030/ .
[10]. Gideon Polya. “Methane Leakage Makes Australia A World Leading Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Polluter”, Countercurrents, 18 February 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2020/02/methane-leakage-makes-australia-a-world-leading-per-capita-greenhouse-gas-polluter/ .
[11]. Lisa Cox, “Australia the only developed nation on world list of deforestation hotspots”, The Guardian, 13 January 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/13/australia-the-only-developed-nation-on-world-list-of-deforestation-hotspots .
[12]. Adam Bandt, “Greens urge Labor to announce 2030 targets to pressure Morrison before Glasgow”, Greens MPs, 20 August 2021: https://greensmps.org.au/articles/greens-urge-labor-announce-2030-targets-pressure-morrison-glasgow .
[13]. “Gas is not clean energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/ .
[14]. Gideon Polya, “The lie than gas is cleaner”, Green Left, 7 October 2020: https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/lie-gas-cleaner .
[15]. Adam Morton and Bec Pridham, “Australia considering more than 100 fossil fuel projects that could produce 5% of global industrial emissions”, The Guardian, 3 November 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/03/australia-considering-more-than-100-fossil-fuel-projects-that-could-produce-5-of-global-industrial-emissions
[16]. Lisa Cox, “Australian fossil fuel projects given $36.7bn in foreign public financing over a decade”, The Guardian, 4 November 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/04/australian-fossil-fuel-projects-given-367bn-in-foreign-public-financing-over-a-decade .
[17]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[18]. Gideon Polya, “Latest Lancet data imply Adani Australian coal project will kill 1.4 million Indians”, Countercurrents, 21 April 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/04/latest-lancet-data-imply-adani-australian-coal-project-will-kill-1-4-million-indians .
[19]. “Stop state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ .
[20]. Gideon Polya, “Idiocracy: Australian Coalition Government Mendacity, Corruption & Inaction Sabotaging COP26”, Countercurrents, 30 October 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2021/10/idiocracy-australian-coalition-government-mendacity-corruption-inaction-sabotaging-cop26/ ).
[21]. Graeme Readfearn, “Australia lobbied Unesco to remove reference to 1.5C global warming limit to protect heritage sites”, The Guardian, 11 November 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/11/australia-lobbied-unesco-to-remove-reference-to-15c-global-warming-limit-to-protect-heritage-sites .
[22]. Gideon Polya, “IPCC +1.5C Avoidance Report – Effectively Too Late, But Stop Coal Burning For “Less Bad” Catastrophes”, Countercurrents, 12 October 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/ipcc-1-5c-avoidance-report-effectively-too-late-but-stop-coal-burning-for-less-bad-catastrophes/
[23]. Gideon Polya, “Summary of the Summary for Policymakers of the IPCC’s “Climate Change 2021””, Countercurrents, 12 August 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2021/08/summary-of-the-summary-for-policymakers-of-the-ipccs-climate-change-2021/ .
[24]. Paul Karp, “Low emissions technology to receive $500m boost, including carbon capture and storage”, The Guardian, 10 November 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/10/low-emissions-technology-to-receive-500m-boost-from-coalitions-new-1bn-fund .
[25]. Tom Stayner, “Australia unveiled its new EV policy. Critics say we are still ’10 years behind’”, SBS News, 9 November 2021: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/australia-unveiled-its-new-ev-policy-critics-say-we-are-still-10-years-behind/a7270928-aa37-4c31-98c9-57145cfc75d8 .
[26]. Jake Evans, “Prime Minister Scott Morrison ‘doesn’t believe’ he has told a lie in public life, rejecting Macron and Turnbull’s accusations”, SBS News, 12 November 2021: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-12/prime-minister-scott-morrison-says-he-is-not-a-liar/100614822 .
[27]. Climate Council, “Federal Government’s net zero by 2050 modelling fails to meet own goal”, 12 November 2021: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/federal-governments-net-zero-by-2050-modelling-fails-to-meet-own-goal/ .
[28]. Cormac Mills Richard, “Australia “World’s third largest emitter”: The long shadow of a global climate criminal”, Red Flag, 25 October 2021: https://redflag.org.au/article/australia-worlds-third-largest-emitter-long-shadow-global-climate-criminal.
[29]. Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: https://awellfedworld.org/wp-content/uploads/Livestock-Climate-Change-Anhang-Goodland.pdf .
[30]. Gideon Polya, “Australian Climate Criminality, Heat Stress Deaths & Australian Aboriginal Ethnocide”, Countercurrents, 19 December 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/12/australian-climate-criminality-heat-stress-deaths-australian-aboriginal-ethnocide/ .
[31]. Gideon Polya, ” How Much Negative Carbon Emissions, Negative Population Growth & Negative Economic Growth Is Needed To Save Planet?”, Countercurrents, 28 November 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/how-much-negative-carbon-emissions-negative-population-growth-negative-economic-growth-is-needed-to-save-planet/ .
[32]. Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness Testimony To Stop Gas-Fired Power Plant Installation”, Countercurrents, 14 June 2013: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm .
[33]. Amy Remeikis, “Morrison Government to underwrite two new gas power stations”, Guardian, 23 December 2019: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/23/morrison-government-to-underwrite-two-new-gas-power-stations .
[34]. Climate Council, “Federal governments net zero by 2050 modelling fails to meet own goal”, November 2021: https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/federal-governments-net-zero-by-2050-modelling-fails-to-meet-own-goal/ .
[35]. IEA, “Pathway to critical and formidable goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 is narrow but brings huge benefits, according to IEA special report”, 18 May 2021: https://www.iea.org/news/pathway-to-critical-and-formidable-goal-of-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-is-narrow-but-brings-huge-benefits .
[36]. Adam Vaughan, “COP26: World agrees to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies and reduce coal”, New Scientist, 13 November 2021: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2297452-cop26-world-agrees-to-phase-out-fossil-fuel-subsidies-and-reduce-coal/ .
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, notably a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds”. He has also published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”. He has recently published “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” (2020) and “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” (2021). For images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ .
