Greens move to “end climate wars,” and mount new battle against fossil fuels

Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt has confirmed that his party will “do its bit” to end the so-called climate wars and support the passage of Labor’s Climate Change Bill through Parliament, but with the understanding that it will ramp up its fight to end new coal and gas projects.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Bandt said the Greens had worked hard to improve a “weak climate bill” and got to a place where where every single member of the party across both houses of Parliament was now prepared to line up behind it.

But Bandt stressed that the Greens’ vote was by no means a “rubber stamp” for Labor’s full suite of climate policies, and especially not its position on new fossil fuel projects, which he described as “ultimately untenable.”

“To be crystal clear, the Greens have improved a weak climate bill and the fight to stop Labor opening new coal and gas mines continues,” Bandt told the Press Club.

“This government is bringing a bucket of water to a house fire. Worse, even the smallest of steps on the road to tackling the climate emergency could be wiped out by just one of the 114 new coal and gas projects in the government’s investment pipeline.

“The fight begins now to get Labor to stop opening coal and gas mines.”

To mount this battle, Bandt says the party will “use and pull every lever at our disposal” and, in particular the existing Safeguard Mechanism – which requires Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitters to keep their net emissions below a limit – and a proposed Climate Trigger.

The Greens say a Climate Trigger, which it is proposing to have written into laws governing environmental approvals, would compel the government to look at the actual impacts new projects would have on the climate.

“Our preference was to improve and pass the bill. In this parliament, where less than a third of the country voted Labor, Labor has some mandate and the Greens have some mandate,” Bandt said.

“But more important is our mandate from the planet and the laws of physics. If Labor continues to open up new coal and gas, the planet will burn, and that is the mandate that we all need to listen to.”

As Australian politics goes, the Greens’ support for the Labor bill – and particularly one that is not even properly aligned with basic Paris targets – is a big deal.

As the “climate wars” go, those between Labor and the Greens – not least, the battle of the scuppered CPRS – have been particularly bloody, and left particularly deep scars.

“It’s pretty significant,” said a visibly relieved (maybe a bit smug?) prime minister Albanese in a press conference following Bandt’s speech. “The parliament is about to – after a decade of inaction and denial and delay – move forward.”

And federal energy minister Chris Bowen concurred. “It’s a good day for Australia. It’s a good day for our economy. It’s a good day for our future,” he said.

“The climate wars may or may not be over, but they’re certainly in retreat.”

Of course, the climate wars are definitely not over. They aren’t even really in retreat – more accurately it’s a sort of cease fire to allow Australian politics to catch up on the basics of barely sufficient climate action.

Team Coalition has confirmed it’s commitment to die on a hill over opposition to real climate action, and is proceeding with its tactical choice to fixate on Labor’s promise of a cut to energy costs while lobbing the occasional nuclear power grenade.

Team Labor, meanwhile, has barely waited until Adam Bandt finished waving his small white flag before resuming its sniping.

Asked by reporters if Labor would be using the Safeguard Mechanism to stop new coal and gas projects, Albanese’s swift response was “No, in a word,” before hand-balling the question to Bowen.

Bowen did add, however, that Labor would be releasing a discussion paper on the detailed design of the Safeguard Mechanism “probably in August,” and would be happy to get feedback on it from across Parliament.

What both Labor and the Greens both clearly do agree on during this short cease fire is that some sort of historic progress has been made, even without the support of the Coalition.

“What the legislation being passed does … is to lock in … a floor, not a ceiling. So we lock in progress. And that’s important,” said Albanese.

“This is round one,” said Bandt. “…This term of Parliament has incredible potential. We are excited because nearly two million people voted greens and we’re not done yet.

“We’re in a critical decade. It’s a fork in the road. One path requires us to take a bold leap into a path less traveled; one which makes peace with our past and takes control of our future.

“The other path, the path well trodden in recent years, will see us continue to ignore our past, sell out our future and slide into inequality and climate fueled disasters.

“We are not a rubber stamp. We will not be taken for granted. This is the critical decade for the climate for climate action to tackle inequality and the cost of living crisis. The Greens will fight for a future for all of us.”