With the final Glasgow pact resolving that coal and gas were on the way out but the world was not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees because 2030 pledges were too weak, the summit will be remembered as one that ScoMo helped sabotage.

But it will also heap pressure on Liberal and Labor next year to lift 2030 targets, and phase out coal and gas. 

Quotes attributable to Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP:

“Glasgow was the summit ScoMo helped sabotage, but he doesn’t get off scot free.

As the Glasgow climate summit looms and the government’s woeful 2030 targets come under the spotlight, Greens Leader, Adam Bandt MP, has said so-called ‘moderate Liberals’ are having an internal debate about whether to go over the climate cliff head first or feet first, advocating 2030 and 2035 targets that are out of step with the science and won’t fix the government’s problems with the US, UK and other countries.  

The independent Climate Targets Panel, headed by former Liberal Party Leader, John Hewson, has today made it clear that a ‘net zero by 2050’ target is not enough because Australia would still blow its carbon budget unless its 2030 target was up to tripled.

Australia’s ‘fair share’ target, in line with the Paris goal of 1.5 degrees of warming, should be 74% by 2030. That’s the finding of the independent Climate Targets Panel, based on Climate Change Authority methodology. 

The Greens have slammed the Nationals’ proposed $250 billion publicly funded coal and gas bank as robbing public money to chase stranded assets for Nationals donors. 

“The Nationals are holding our country to ransom. They want a quarter of a trillion dollars to fund assets even the big banks won’t touch because they’re too dangerous, too deadly and will send anyone who lends them money broke,” Mr Bandt said.

“Barnaby Joyce is trying to lock the public into supporting coal projects no one else will touch with a ten foot pole.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has called on the Prime Minister to take heed of the UK Cabinet’s demands of Australia, calling him a ‘coward’ for trying to avoid the upcoming climate summit.

Today, COP26 President and UK Cabinet Minister Alok Sharma has reportedly called upon the Prime Minister to attend the Glasgow Summit, and to bring updated 2030 targets of 45-50% with him.

Overnight, China announced at the UN that they would cease building new coal plants, signalling a further, faster global transition out of coal.

The Greens also seized on new polling showing Australians want to get out of coal and increase our 2030 climate targets.

Both Liberal and Labor have repeatedly said they see coal exports continuing even beyond 2050, and while the government’s 2030 target is being internationally condemned, Labor has no 2030 target at all.

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, has described Prime Minister Scott Morrison as an utter embarrassment and a threat to Australia’s safety after Australia’s weak climate action stood in contrast to a host of nations, including our biggest trading partners, lifting their 2030 targets at President Biden’s Climate Summit.

“We are heading towards a climate cliff and as Joe Biden desperately tries to stop us going over the edge, Scott Morrison refuses to lift 2030 targets and Labor backs him in,” said Mr Bandt.

Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, says the Government is right to reconsider its 2030 climate ambitions, but needs to do far more than just drop the Kyoto-credits loophole if Australia is to join the rest of the world on climate action.
 
“The government’s terrible 2030 targets leave Australia exposed. We’re in the critical decade and domestic political games will provide no cover for Australia’s climate-pariah status on the world stage,” Bandt said.
 

Time is ticking for the government and opposition to adopt science-based 2030 targets, with an upcoming US-led climate summit to be held before ANZAC Day next year, setting a deadline for Liberal and Labor on climate.
 
President-Elect Joe Biden has set the deadline, with his commitment to hold a climate summit within 100 days after he takes office, in which he will call upon major emitters to join the United States in increasing ambition. President-Elect Biden and the Prime Minister have spoken yesterday.
 

Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt has responded to Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation by calling on Labor to join the Greens in pressuring Scott Morrison to lift his 2030 game.

“The Greens are putting pressure on Scott Morrison over his weak 2030 targets and we hope Labor will now help us,” said Mr Bandt.

“If we don’t take urgent action in the next decade, we may pass the point of no return, where global heating becomes an unstoppable chain reaction.

“Scott Morrison’s woeful 2030 targets have Australia on track for over 4 degrees of global warming.