Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Failed Aussie Conservative Leader and ANU “Tax and Transfer Policy Chair” Professor John Hewson thinks Coronavirus “plusses” such as the noteworthy setting aside of civil liberties offers an opportunity for ramming through climate policies.

Sorry to disappoint climate deniers, but coronavirus makes the low-carbon transition more urgent

April 6, 2020 6.04am AEST

Climate deniers have been hanging out for the United Nations’ next big summit to fail. In a sense, the coronavirus and its induced policy responses have more than satisfied their wildest dreams, precipitating a global recession that they no doubt hope has pushed the issue of the low-carbon transition well down the political and policy agenda.

The next round of international climate negotiations – the so-called COP26 in Scotland – has been delayed until 2021. Presumably, climate sceptics hope governments and policy authorities will now be consumed by, in the words of our prime minister, the need to “cushion” the impact of the recession and ensure “a bounce back on the other side”.

Deniers argue that further disruption to economies and societies will be avoided at all costs. 

Sorry to be the harbinger of denier disappointment, but there is every reason to expect that the virus crisis will strengthen and accelerate the imperative to transition to a low-carbon world by mid-century.

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As Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, states in her recent book:

“We are in the critical decade. It is no exaggeration to say that what we do regarding emissions reductions between now and 2030 will determine the quality of human life on this planet for hundreds of years to come, if not more.”

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There are a few “pluses” from the experience of coronavirus. Emissions are falling (although clearly no one would advocate a global recession as a climate strategy). And the response of governments to the crisis has seen decisive domestic action – working individually, but together, in meeting what is a global challenge.

Individual governments have demonstrated how quickly they can move once they accept the reality of a crisis. We’ve also seen just how far they’re prepared to go in terms of policy responses – lockdowns, social distancing, testing, rapid and historically significant fiscal expansions, and massive liquidity injections.

It’s noteworthy that issues that in “normal times” could not have been ignored – such as civil liberties and concerns about intrusive governments and effective competition – have so easily been set aside as part of emergency responses.

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Read more: https://theconversation.com/sorry-to-disappoint-climate-deniers-but-coronavirus-makes-the-low-carbon-transition-more-urgent-135419

John, what is missing from your glorious climate action revolution is large scale buy-in.

Most people in Australia and elsewhere have accepted the Coronavirus lockdown because there is solid evidence that Coronavirus is a problem. Horror news videos coming from New York, Iran, Italy, Spain and Britain have sent a powerful message which most people have accepted, that it is worth some serious inconvenience to avoid joining those poor dying people gasping for breath in overcrowded hospitals.

There is no solid evidence climate change is a problem. The only “evidence” climate activists have presented for their economic lockdown is a bunch of fear mongering UN elitists whom nobody likes, a 17 year old puppet with serious psychological issues, and a bunch of jet setting professors who keep having to revise their calculations when all the bad things they predict fail to happen.

Until you and your friends can present genuine evidence climate change is a problem, nobody in their right mind is going to accept a climate change lockdown, or anything remotely resembling the kinds of economic cuts failed politicians like you want to inflict on the people you once aspired to lead.