Q & A on Labor and the Coalition’s flawed climate policies

This is a Q & A about the Federal Labor and the Coalition’s climate policies. It includes questions on greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, policies that will protect nature to help secure a safe climate and how you can help us to secure a safe climate.

What action is required to secure a safe climate?
Leading climate scientists are calling for global action to make deep, early reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to stabilize temperate increases to well below 1.5 degrees. This requires developed countries to reduce their annual greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020 (on 1990 levels).

Protecting our native forests = protecting our climate. Old-growth forest, Upper Florentine Valley, Tasmania. Photo by: Rob Blakers

If we do not achieve this we will cause irreversible damage to our planet’s climate system. This will result in increased droughts, bushfires, cyclones, a loss of natural icons like the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. It will cause severe hardships for people and nature in the countries that are vulnerable to rising sea levels, drought, desertification and failure of food production systems, leading to increased poverty.

What are the Federal Government’s and the Coalition’s greenhouse gas reduction targets?
To date the climate policies of the Federal government and of the Coalition have failed to deliver a plan to secure a safe climate and avoid the risks facing Australia, one of the driest continents on Earth.

The Federal Labor government has only committed to an unconditional greenhouse gas reduction target of 3.89% by 2020, based on 1990 levels.  This has been packaged and sold to the Australian public as a 5% greenhouse gas reduction target by using a 2000 baseline instead of a 1990 baseline (the international norm). This target is insufficient and will position Australia as a rich developed country that has one of the lowest greenhouse gas reduction targets of any nation, despite being the second highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide.

The Labor government has also included a proposal for 15% - 25% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (based on 2000 levels) that is conditional on the outcomes and level of commitments from all countries in the international negotiations that are developing a climate agreement to come into force after 2012.

The Coalition has released a climate policy that has a target of 5% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 but does not place a cap on emissions to achieve it. Their target is actually based on a 1990 levels. The Coalition has failed to show leadership on climate change and have instead come up with an alternative plan to deliver a target similar to the target pledged by PM Rudd.

Overall, the targets of both Federal Labor and the Coalition are inadequate. They should not be supported in their current forms and public pressure needs to be applied so Australia can make a real, fair and significant contribution to global efforts to secure a safe climate.

Why should climate policies include measures to protect nature, including our natural forests and woodlands? 
The protection and restoration of native forests and natural ecosystems as permanent biodiverse carbon stores is a crucial part of any credible climate policy.  This should stand alongside cuts in industrial emissions.

Massive reductions in emissions can be achieved by avoiding deforestation (permanent clearing of vegetation) and forest degradation (including logging) and improving fire management across Australia (by returning to indigenous burning practices in the vast northern savannahs, for example).

The eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia store an average of 640 tonnes of carbon per hectare. The tall wet euclaypt forests in Victoria and Tasmania can store up to 2000 tonnes and 1500 tonnes of carbon per hectare respectively. Permanently protecting these forest ecosystems ensures the massive amounts of carbon stay safely stored at a time when we desperately need to halt further greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere.

Protecting these forests would avoid the large amounts of carbon currently being emitted from land use activities including logging and clearing. When a forest is logged or cleared at least 60% of the carbon in these forests is emitted into the atmosphere, worsening the greenhouse gas effect.

Massive amounts of carbon can also be sequestered (sucked out of the atmosphere) over time, by allowing native forests to reach their full carbon carrying capacity and allowing degraded forests and woodlands to be restored to their full maturity across Australia.

Australia could reduce its annual emissions substantially if measures are taken to protect and restore our forests and woodlands. Globally deforestation is estimated to contribute around 20% of annual emissions.

Do the Labor and Coalition’s current climate policies include protecting nature?
So far the Federal Labor Government have not announced a complementary measures package to their CPRS that includes the protection and restoration of Australia’s forests and woodlands.

Instead, the Federal Labor Government have focused on establishing a joint partnership with the Indonesian Government to provide Australia with international carbon pollution offsets permits from reducing emissions in those forests. This means that Australia could achieve the pledged 3.89% reductions solely by purchasing pollution offset credits from projects in Indonesia through a carbon market.  (We should assist with reducing emissions from tropical forests, but not instead of taking action on such emissions at home.)

The Coalition released their ‘Direct action plan’ on the 2nd of Feb 2010.  It includes a fund of $3.2 billion over 4 years and largely ignores reducing industrial emissions from fossil fuels and the logging, clearing and burning of Australia’s forests.

The Coalition’s Direct Action Plan includes bio-sequestration in general, and in particular, the planting of 20 million trees in public places and the replenishment of soil carbon. It includes funds for direct action on ‘forestry’. The details of the actions are still unclear but to date there is no mention of protecting native forests and woodlands across Australia as permanent natural carbon stores.

The Coalition also supports major studies of algal synthesis and biofuels but it ignores the tried and tested mitigation measure of protecting and restoring native forests and woodlands.

Their policy recognizes that there are ‘substantial opportunities for CO2 to be stored in the state’s public and private forests in Tasmania’. No detail is provided so it is unclear if this will include perverse actions such as funding the establishment of monoculture plantations that will be harvested for low value wood or paper products, and biomass burning of native forest for power production, or slightly amending logging practices.  These are worrying policies that are currently supported by the Tasmanian Government.

What can I do to help secure a safe climate?
Together we can secure a safe climate and transform Australia into an innovative, sustainable, healthy low carbon society. We know what needs to be done. We just need to convince our elected representatives at all levels of government to take up the challenge!

You can help us secure a strong, fair and ambitious climate plan for Australia that reduces industrial fossil fuel emissions, protects and restores native forests and ecosystems, activates an immediate transition to low carbon economy including investments in truly renewable energy including solar, wind, wave and tidal power, and creates jobs for everyday Australians.

We can do it, but we need your help.

You can:

• Sign our forest pledge to PM Rudd www.wilderness.org.au/forestpledge
  
• Write to your local Members of Parliament (MP’s), Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Minister for Climate Change and Water Senator Penny Wong, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Opposition Climate Change Spokesperson Greg Hunt.
  
• Arrange a meeting with your local MPs, Senators and community leaders.
  Visit www.wilderness.org.au/haveyourvoiceheard and find out who your local MPs are and to get some tips on writing letters to and meeting with politicians.
  
• Join a local climate action group in your area www.climatemovement.org.au/