Australia at climate crossroads as old fuel path tapers
Imagine water pooling on the bathroom tiles and you start mopping while the tap is still running.
This is an apt analogy for the world’s response to climate change over the past three decades, according to Kumi Naidoo, head of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.
“Eighty-six percent of the drivers of climate change are fossil fuels,” says the former head of Greenpeace and Amnesty International.
The South African human rights and environmental activist has written an essay on Australia’s opportunity to lead the shift away from non-renewable resources and ensure a future for its Pacific neighbours.
According to Mr Naidoo, the failure to mention fossil fuels in the outcomes of UN climate talks in Brazil in November is emblematic of the failure of the global climate response due to the heavy presence of oil, gas and coal interests.
Still, he left the 30th Conference of the Parties summit in Belem, Amazon, with a cautious sense of optimism.
Dozens of countries are agitating over the fossil fuel issue, he told AAP.
COP30 president Andre Correa do Lago has promised to present a plan for a just transition away from polluting fuels ahead of the next conference in Türkiye.
Formulated to sit outside the main COP30 agreement, the Belem Declaration has been ratified by 80 countries, including leading coal and gas producer Australia, and allows states to signal support for the fossil fuel roadmap.
Momentum is now building behind an inaugural international conference on phasing out fossil fuels, to be held in Columbia in April.
Mr Naidoo is encouraging Australia to join, especially given its negotiating role in the next round of international climate talks.
After a protracted standoff with Turkey at the 31st COP summit, Australia eventually handed over hosting rights on the condition that the Pacific hold a pre-summit leaders’ event and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen lead negotiations.
Under that arrangement, Mr Naidoo said it would be “completely unacceptable” if Australia did not participate in the Columbia summit as a “positive and constructive player”.
“We can only pray and hope that the Australian government moves beyond rhetorically embracing the urgency of climate change and begins to recognize that its doorstep neighbors like Australia are already facing major climate impacts,” he said.
While Australia’s electricity generation from renewable sources surpassed coal for the first time in September, government revenues are still heavily reliant on fossil fuel exports, including liquefied natural gas.
In the article titled Our Debt to Water: It’s Time for a Fossil Fuel AgreementMr Naidoo said the Paris Agreement – the primary global climate agreement – was an important baseline regulation but he would struggle to limit dangerous warming.
“We’re not saying the climate Paris agreement should be scrapped,” he said.
“What we are saying is that this needs a much more binding and complementary component and that countries are committed to phasing it out.”
Noting the difficult political environment, including the US government’s disregard for climate action, Mr Naidoo did not expect immediate full international support for a deal to phase out fossil fuels.
However, he hoped that if such an agreement proposal was put to a vote, the resistance would come under pressure.
Mr Naidoo took advantage of negotiations over a mines treaty developed in the late 1990s that was “very difficult” to vote against when presented to the UN General Assembly.
“It was very difficult for people to say, ‘Oh, I want landmines, I’m not ready to ban that,’ wasn’t it?”
Speaking about the climate movement, Mr Naidoo said campaigners had made a tactical mistake by framing the threat as an environmental problem.
“What we needed to do was humanize the climate.”
Mr Naidoo’s article was published by Australia Institute Press.
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