Albanese pledges to get Australia out of climate ‘naughty corner’

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese says stronger Australian efforts on climate change could help repair diplomatic relationships across the Pacific region, suggesting a Labor government would get Australia out of the climate “naughty corner”.

In his pre-election address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Albanese said tackling climate change would be a key part of a Labor government’s strategy for repairing Australia’s international and diplomatic relationships.

“We are in the naughty corner at UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences. That’s the truth,” Albanese told the Press Club.

“We were there (in the naughty corner) under Howard. We’re there now.”

“One of the ways that we increase our standing in the region, and in particular in the Pacific, is by taking climate change seriously.

“And the Biden Administration and Australia, I think, will have a strengthened relationship in our common view about climate change and the opportunity that it represents.”

Australia remains an outlier at major international climate change negotiations, following almost a decade of Coalition governments refusing to commit Australia to stronger targets or to phase down the use of fossil fuels.

Prime minister Scott Morrison repeatedly clashed with Pacific Island leaders over the issue of climate change – with some Pacific Island nations facing threats to their existence due to sea-level rise and extreme weather events.

At a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in 2019, some leaders were brought to tears as a result of Morrison’s refusal to acknowledge their climate change concerns.

Australia’s failure to move on climate policy has been cited as a contributing factor in a deterioration of Australia’s relationship with the Solomon Islands, contributing to a diplomatic crisis sparked by the Solomon Islands signing a security pact with China.

The Coalition government has also burnt through a significant amount of diplomatic capital at recent climate change conferences in a quest to ‘carry over’ surplus carbon credits from the Kyoto Protocol into the Paris Agreement.

Other nations, including several small island Pacific countries, said the carryover proposal went against the ‘spirit of the Paris Agreement’ and would allow Australia to effectively shortcut its way to meeting its 2030 emissions reduction target without actually reducing emissions.

The Coalition’s stance saw Australia become an outcast at the UN climate talks, finding itself aligned with a group of climate change antagonists that includes Russia, Saudi Arabia and Brazil.

Labor has pledged to bid to host a future round of the UN Climate Change negotiations and would offer an opportunity to Pacific Island neighbours to be involved in the conference as a co-host.

Hosting a conference would put pressure on Australia to strengthen its climate change commitments but would also provide an important diplomatic opportunity for Australia to re-establish itself as a good faith participant in the climate negotiations.

Albanese delivered his speech to the National Press Club just days out from election day. Prime minister Scott Morrison will not make a similar address, becoming the first prime minister in around 50-years that will not make a pre-election speech at the Press Club.