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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-25 Daily Xml
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Climate Change

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:17): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes with deep concern the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;

2. Recognises that land temperatures have already warmed by 1.4º Celsius and that we will likely reach a dangerous 1.5º Celsius of warming before 2030;

3. Recognises that globally we have reached 1.09º Celsius of warming and will likely reach 1.5º Celsius of warming in the early 2030s;

4. Acknowledges that if we exceed 1.5º Celsius of warming it means we will lose the Great Barrier Reef, experience more frequent and intense heatwaves, see more extinctions of plants and animals, have widespread and sustained drought, more extreme weather events, and catastrophic bushfires will be the norm; and

5. Affirms that it is not too late to act, but that the window for doing so is rapidly closing.

On 9 August this year, we saw the release of the IPCC sixth assessment report. I think it is safe to say that for those of us who even just glanced at it—and I will admit it is a large tome, so I have not read the whole thing yet—particularly in the midst of all this grim pandemic news, it painted a harrowing picture of the future should we fail to act on climate change.

The report is unequivocal: human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in the last 2,000 years. Most of us here are very aware of this fact and have been for some time. This report presents us with something newer, and given our continued insistence that we must act on climate change to provide a safe world for our children, it is something that we need to acknowledge and act on with urgency. Climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe, with human influence contributing to many observed changes in the weather and climate extremes.

The report is a collection and reflection of five years of painstaking work, involving 234 leading scientists from more than 60 countries rigorously assessing more than 14,000 research papers. Land areas in Australia have warmed by 1.4º Celsius between 1910 and 2020. Annual temperature changes have emerged above natural variability in all land regions.

Heat extremes have increased and cold extremes have decreased, and these trends are projected to continue. The report also identifies that relative sea levels have risen around Australia at a rate higher than the global average in the last few decades, and shorelines have retreated. This is projected to continue, with increased coastal flooding and shoreline retreat forecast.

Since 1950, the frequency of extreme fire weather days has increased, and the fire season has become longer. The intensity, frequency and duration of fire weather events are projected to increase. It is difficult to imagine fire seasons worse than the ones we have seen recently and certainly the one we saw in 2019-20, but when we look at those pictures from Greece we realise that is the reality we face without quick and serious action.

We are also predicted to face and already have seen increases in marine heatwaves and ocean acidity, particularly with enhanced warming in the East Australian Current. All of this, of course, is bad news for coral reefs. For South Australia specifically, the report warns that there has already been an observed decrease in rainfall and an increase in agricultural and ecological droughts. This is only projected to get worse and the report highlights in particular that the significant rainfall decrease is attributable to human influence.

The news is also not good for our cities, which are hotspots for the urban heat island effect. Re-greening our cities and suburbs is a vital task in protecting them from rising temperatures, with some cities predicted to become unlivable in the summer months without urgent action. But it is not the only solution. The clearest message of all coming from this report is that it does not have to be this way. We should feel anger and grief over what we have already lost through decades of ignored warnings, but we cannot let that define what we do next.

We need to create hope, and it is not too late to prevent runaway climate change. It is not even too hard. We know what we need to do, and we have for some time, we just need to commit to actually doing it. Australia has the capacity to be a world leader in climate action and renewable energy, phasing out coal and building a renewable energy economy that exports clean energy to our world. We need to cut emissions by around 45 per cent by 2030, and to around net zero by 2050.

These need to be real cuts, not creative carbon accounting and not weasel words, because without this action we are unlikely to keep global warming below 2°Celsius, and it is already incredibly difficult for us to keep warming below 1.5°Celsius. We will not be able to keep warming below that 1.5° without strong action to reach net zero emissions before 2050. The latest emission predictions released by the federal government in December last year show that we are well behind on that path to net zero by 2050.

We need to act faster. For 40 years, almost my entire life, we have been saying that we must act to protect the future of our children, and for 40 years we have failed to do so in a way that meaningfully addresses the problem. We are running out of other people's futures to hypothecate about, to burn as climate change encroaches on all our lives even now.

A leaked draft of the IPCC report revealed that global greenhouse gas emissions must peak in the next four years, and that coal and gas-fired power plants must close in the next decade to avoid climate breakdown. Stranded assets will be a growing problem as coal-fired and gas power plants with working lives usually measured in decades will have to be decommissioned within nine to 12 years of construction, and that is what the report finds. The scientists echo the recent advice from the International Energy Agency that no new fossil fuel development can take place if the world is to stay within that 1.5°Celsius of heating.

We know that some of these changes are baked in already. We have seen this as temperatures continue to rise and as fire seasons and droughts increase in their intensity, but we can still prevent a lot of the most serious impacts of climate change, of greatly increased temperatures, and we must act now. What does acting now look like? For starters, it means we need to seriously acknowledge our current situation. We are already seeing the effects of climate change today, and the best time to act was actually decades ago. Of course, the next best time to act is right now, today.

When we take action—and I want to be clear that we need to take action and hold those to account who are most responsible for pollution, for emissions—this means that we need to target the big polluting corporations, the ones who have spent decades trying to bury the science of climate change, the ones who have spent decades trying to shift the blame. We cannot let those big corporations continue to lay systemic issues at the feet of individuals.

You can use as many keep cups or reusable shopping bags as you like, but it will not change the fact that, on several occasions this year alone, the ocean was on fire. It was on fire because of ruptured oil and gas pipelines. It will not change the fact that 100 companies are responsible for 71 per cent of emissions. Further, half of global industrial emissions since 1988, the year that the IPCC was established, can be traced to just 25 corporate and state-owned entities. Eco-friendly personal choices are great. I do not want to discourage those, but on their own they are not nearly enough. We need collective action. We need it now and we need it at every level in our society, from local to global.

What is even more difficult to stomach is that one-fifth of industrial global greenhouse gas emissions are backed by public investment. To quote Tim Hollo, the director of The Green Institute, 'It is dangerous nonsense for both major parties to try to have this planet and heat it, too.' We need to decouple the vested interests of the fossil fuel lobby from politics. We need to end their dirty donations and we need to stop investing in fossil fuels.

We need to stop approving new fossil fuel projects, and we need the two major parties to stop clinging to these fossil fuels while spruiking a clean, green image for South Australia and for Australia more broadly. By ending the influence of fossil fuel giants and their lobbyists, we can transform Australia's energy system from one of the oldest and dirtiest in the world to one of the cleanest and smartest. I am disturbed that our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, continues to say that Australia's response will be led by technological change. What technological change he refers to is unclear at best and fictitious at worst, with a focus apparently on hydrogen and 'carbon capture' technologies.

Hydrogen, for example, if not done sustainably, can be a disaster for emissions. Blue hydrogen is a perfect example of this. It is derived from methane in natural gas and has previously been touted as a better alternative because the production emissions are captured and stored deep underground. However, new research indicates that this energy alternative could be worse than burning coal.

In addition, carbon dioxide is a by-product of blue hydrogen production and, while the plan is to capture and store the gas, the question remains as to what to do with that supply in the future. That is a connected problem to that of carbon capture sequestration in general—a failing technology that is at the core of the fiction that we can continue to use fossil fuels while keeping the global temperature rise below 2°.

CCS projects have encountered failure for three key reasons, according to the latest research. These are high capital costs, low levels of technological readiness and a low credibility of project revenues. The more successful projects have been monetising the carbon captured by pumping it into oil wells to extract more fossil fuels, which is something highly questionable in terms of its CO² removal effectiveness.

I could go on, of course, but what it comes down to is this: we already know what works, and we already have the technologies we need to transition into a sustainable renewable future, a future where we do not warm our planet by more than 1.5°. In fact, South Australia has led the way before and should continue to do so, with continued investment in renewables, such as solar, wind and green hydrogen. Accompanied by battery technology, we can end our reliance on fossil fuels and transition to a sustainable, renewable economy that is safe for the climate and creates and transitions jobs into green industries.

We have everything to gain by acting on climate change. We have taken baby steps so far, but now it is time to really leap into action. People are waiting on us as parliamentarians to act. We have, of course, seen the hundreds of climate rallies over the last few years and the petitions and the emails. We have seen kids skipping school to make a point and to fight for their future, organising with their peers and communities to take action.

In the absence of federal leadership, communities across Australia are stepping up to fill that void. More than 100 jurisdictions throughout Australia have declared climate emergencies across metro, regional and rural communities, and of course we know that in this very council, in this chamber, we have done so as well, and I commend the member for Port Adelaide for her leadership on this issue in the other place this week.

There are now thousands of different communities of climate action. Those who have intentionally slowed and stopped climate action for decades are now finding that the tides are turning against them. Globally, markets are dramatically shifting away from fossil fuels, and this is largely because regular people continue to find new ways to challenge these corporate giants, whether it is through the courts, through boardrooms, through AGMs or through the ballot box: it is not too late to ensure a safe climate for all of South Australia, and it is not too late for us as parliamentarians to support the people we are suppose to represent, and to magnify their action and passion. We must lift our ambition and we must live our ambition as well.

I would like to leave today with this quote from Dr Joëlle Gergis, an award-winning climate scientist based at the ANU, and one of the scientists who contributed to the IPCC report. That quote is:

Being part of a group of scientists from every corner of the world, working together to try to avert disaster at this critical moment in human history, changed my life. It taught me that when we align behind a collective vision guided by strong leadership—no matter how insurmountable these challenges feel—anything is possible.

Ultimately, we only really have one choice to make—to stay connected with people that restore our faith in the goodness of humanity, or fall into an abyss of cynicism and despair. It really is as simple as that. You can choose to be a person that restores someone else's faith in humanity and do what you can, where you can, even when all feels lost.

Because once despair has passed, we need to remember that there is still so much worth saving. How bad we let things get is still up to us—the apocalypse is not a done deal.

I commend the motion to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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