Australia Doesn’t Make The Cut Of The Climate Ambition B-league

Global climate ambition is not enough and the world is still not on track to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets, delegates at this weekend’s Climate Ambition Summit have been warned - and Australia wasn’t even invited.

“Even the B-league doesn’t want Australia. Australia’s natural advantages in wind and solar means we should be among the champions of the world, but we are not only dropping the ball, we’re kicking it the wrong way on purpose,” said David Ritter, Chief Executive Officer of Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

“When it comes to winning on climate action, Australia is like a sports team with fantastic talent - but led by coaching staff who just haven’t got a clue.”

“Australia wasn’t even invited to a climate ambition summit that is still not showing enough ambition from major emitting countries to phase out coal, oil and gas as the leading sources of climate change.”

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama asserted he would not let major emitting countries like Australia treat the Pacific as the “canary in the coal mine”, as Scott Morrison told delegates at Friday’s Pacific Islands Forum that Australia may not need to use controversial Kyoto credits to meet Australia’s meagre Paris targets.

“The Pacific moved on from Kyoto to more ambitious targets years ago. Using Kyoto credits in 2020 is cheating, and Morrison is not going to get a medal from the Pacific for not cheating,” said Joseph Moeono-Kolio, Greenpeace Head of Pacific.

“Scott Morrison has long referred to the Pacific as ‘family”, while simultaneously burning down the family home by refusing to act on coal, oil and gas as the leading cause of climate change.”

“In the Pacific, we see through this and know it is all talk. Without real action to commit to phasing out coal, oil and gas, we know that Scott Morrison is bringing nothing but climate action scraps from states and business to the family table.”

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