So it's been a few months and last week was the Student Climate Strike, staged online as everything is at the moment. I admire those kids for their persistence to keep going when it seems doubly hopeless, so decided it was time for my next letter to our esteemed Prime Minister. Here it is for your reading pleasure. Others have said similar things, not really my idea, but the more of us say it the more they have to listen.
Dear Prime Minister
I trust you and your
family are well and thriving through the COVID crisis.
I would like to thank
and congratulate you and your government, and our State governments, on your
astute handling of the crisis. It’s been
reassuring to see the speed and effectiveness with which our governments have
reacted, and the success this has brought about in keeping the number of
infections low. No doubt there is a long
way to go and there will be twists and turns along the way, but so far so good.
To me, your success
rests on four foundations.
1. You have placed expert advice at the centre of your
response, following the recommendations of medical experts and giving them
voice in explaining the responses.
2. You have worked cooperatively with State governments via
the National Cabinet, pooling advice and agreeing on responses.
3. You have worked to ensure that those negatively
affected by the response have protection through the jobkeeper and jobseeker
payments and various State programs to help people like those who are homeless
to weather the storm.
4. You have operated within a framework of international
cooperation, both through our membership of the WHO and bilaterally through
arrangements like research partnerships to test potential vaccines and
treatments.
In acting in this way,
we have taken important steps to protect our older people and others in
vulnerable situations. These include my
parents-in-law, who still live independently in their 90s, and I understand
also your mother. Your actions have made
them and all those in their generation safer, and spared many people the grief
of losing loved ones prematurely.
Now as you know, I
have written several letters to you over the past year on the subject of our
climate crisis. Only a few months ago we
were facing the worst bushfires in Australian history, and this crisis has not
gone away while we have been focusing on COVID-19. However, our nation’s capable handling of the
pandemic has reminded me that it is certainly not beyond us to respond to
climate change. Indeed, the same four
foundations can serve this purpose as well.
1. Placing experts at the centre.
We have a vast amount of research at our disposal about climate change – both
what is happening now, and what to do about it.
The research into what is happening now is sobering and should convince
us to take this seriously, just as the information about COVID-19 has. Yet unlike COVID, climate change has been
known about for several decades and there is a vast amount of research into how
to respond, whether this is the AEMO’s integrated system plan to re-orient our
electricity system towards renewables, the rapid development of electric
vehicles and the importance of public and active transport, and the multitude
of ways to reorient our agriculture to make it more resilient and less
polluting. And so much more - let’s
start doing it!
2. Working cooperatively with States. On climate change our State governments, whatever the colour of
their coats, are well ahead of the Commonwealth, committing to net zero targets
and having clear strategies in place.
They are not perfect, but the addition of a committed Commonwealth
government and a national framework would give a huge impetus to these
efforts. It would make perfect sense to
me to keep the National Cabinet in place and make climate change its next order
of priority, acting with the same decisiveness and bipartisanship that has been
on display in the past few months.
3. Protecting those who are vulnerable. There is no question that the transition will be hard for workers
in some industries and in some communities, and also that even if we succeed in
limiting climate change some communities will face difficult adaptation
strategies. This why we need a
transition strategy that focuses on economic development for communities and
workers affected by the closure of fossil fuel-based industries, and an
adaptation strategy for communities affected by increased risk of drought, fire
or flood.
4. Working within international systems. Like COVID-19, climate
change does not respect borders and combating it requires international
cooperation. In the Paris Accord we have
a system in place to do this, but it is only as good as the nations that
participate in it. As a major producer
of fossil fuels and a key ally of the world’s two largest polluters, Australia
is in a position to wield influence in this forum well above our size. Let’s use that to accelerate the global
response, not hold it back.
The economic recovery
that needs to come after the COVID-19 shut-down represents a key decision-point
in these efforts. Organisations as
diverse as the IMF and the Australian Industry Group have been talking about a
‘clean recovery’, one that stimulates our economy while focusing on the
industries that are sustainable and responsible in a warming world. This includes accelerating the development and
infrastructure needed for our transition to renewable electricity, development
of liquid hydrogen, and priority for funding of public transport networks and
walking and cycling infrastructure in our cities. What we definitely don’t need is a ‘gas-led
recovery’ which buys some short-term economic gains at the cost of ongoing
emissions for decades to come.
2020 has been a
watershed year in the governance of our nation.
It will certainly be tempting to go back to ‘business as usual’ as the
current crisis eases, and to revive partisan politics, pandering to vested
interests and short-term thinking. I
trust you will resist this temptation, and continue to govern in the way this
crisis has shown you can.
In the case of
COVID-19, we have set aside these things in order to protect our older people. In the case of climate change, we will be
acting decisively to protect our children.
These include my two grandsons, aged 3 and 6, as well as your own young
children. We need to act to protect
their futures. We have shown that we
can, now let’s get on with it.
Yours sincerely
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