Australian Emissions Reduction A Numbers Game
With Europe sweltering through a record breaking heatwave, and severe drought affecting swathes of Eastern Australia, the urgency of reducing carbon emissions is increasing.
Scott Morrison has boasted of Australia meeting its 2020 protocol emissions target ‘in a canter’.
But this elides the truth of our carbon emissions. Under the Kyoto target, Australia only needed to limit emissions increases to eight percent until 2012.
This sophistry has angered the international community since the Kyoto protocol was ratified. Suggestions that Australia’s success in meeting these targets could be used to reduce our emissions under the Paris agreement may lead to diplomatic and economic difficulties, as well as endangering efforts to mitigate climate breakdown.
Image by Rebecca Humann from Pixabay