In the week before the election campaign began the IPCC released its latest report that contained warnings that deep, rapid and sustained emissions reductions are needed to prevent temperatures from rising 1.5C or 2C above pre-industrial levels.
And yet, as policy director Greg Jericho notes in his column in Guardian Australia, the issue has been virtually ignored in the election campaign thus far – with most focus being on the “costs” of reducing emissions rather than a focus on the need to do so, or that the cost of renewable energy has fallen so far that “maintaining emission-intensive systems may, in some regions and sectors, be more expensive than transitioning to low emission systems”.
There need to be a focus on the jobs in a low-emissions economy rather than a belief that Australia can keep avoiding the reality of climate change.
Between the Lines Newsletter
The biggest stories and the best analysis from the team at the Australia Institute, delivered to your inbox every fortnight.
You might also like
There is no such thing as a safe seat | Fact sheet
A notable trend in Australian politics has been the decline of the share of the vote won by both major parties at federal elections. One effect of this is that there are no longer any safe seats in Australian politics: minor parties and independents win more “safe” seats than they do “marginal” ones. The declining
Opening Remarks: Climate Integrity Summit | Richard Denniss
If we wanted to fix these things, we could. If you think that we need some complicated policy measure or some very expensive investment, you’ve been misled.
Women still underrepresented in Australian parliaments
The Australia Institute has crunched the data on women’s representation in Australian parliaments.