One of the reasons leant far too heavily on for Australia’s inaction is the idea that the rest of the world isn’t acting. We’ve conveniently ignored the EU, and even the shift to renewable energy in developing countries like China and India. This agreement shows the unwinding of climate policy here to be in stark contrast with the direction of the rest of the world.
If China, a developing country that’s had an unhealthy appetite for coal can hit peak carbon pollution by 2030, what’s our excuse?
Which brings us to coal. Coal, which our Prime Minister says is ‘good for humanity’ while Beijing bans it from the city because of the appalling air pollution it’s caused.
China is simply not going to want our coal anymore. Not with a 20 per cent clean energy target and an appetite for clean air. In fact, China’s clean energy target for 2030 is sixteen times Australia’s total installed capacity in 2014, clean and dirty.
So as Australia gets down to work on destroying natural wilderness areas to access more fossil fuels, the markets are turning their backs on us. Come 2030, or sooner, it’s feasible that Australia will be left with some very large and expensive stranded assets and an even more powerful reputation for stalling on international agreements.
The willingness of other countries to go behind our back to get the agreements they need should be a wake-up call that if Australia doesn’t learn to play with others, it won’t get invited to any of the good parties. As the world moves to a carbon-zero economy, that’s an important lesson to take on board.
Australia’s other big excuse for inaction has been an economic one. But those economics are based back in the 50’s. They simply don’t work in a world that increasingly relies on new, clean technologies to solve the problems of the past. Trying to flog old fuels into a new, clean market just isn’t going to work.
China has already made its direction clear. It’s already done well in providing support for Australian solar research; it’s easily foreseeable that there will be similar investments in other forms of clean technology. What will Australia have to offer China for their clean energy ambitions? Not too much at this rate.
Over the last few years, Australian climate policy has been stuck in reverse. The carbon pricing mechanism has been abolished. Funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency has been slashed. Investment in renewable technology has declined substantially due to the ongoing review of the renewable energy target.
The US-China agreement should be a wake-up call that Australia is moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the world. It doesn’t need us to come along, and it’s not going to let us hold it back any longer.
The direction Australia is heading in now in no way lays the groundwork for a profitable future. A future based on clean technology. A future where coal will be left in the ground. We will continue to need international markets to accept our goods. For them to want our goods, they need to be using and improving on the technologies available to us today; they need to be ‘clean and green. They have to be lowering our carbon footprint, not increasing it.
There was clear signal sent this week that the world is changing, moving in the opposite direction to the one Australia has been stuck in. We need to be careful now that we are not left so far behind that we become completely irrelevant.
Stephen Bygrave is CEO of Beyond Zero Emissions.