Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Australian opposition politicians are aghast that the Scott Morrison government has not even bothered responding to a report prepared by the Government Climate Change Authority, which recommends stimulating Australia’s Covid-19 economic recovery by investing in renewable energy.

Morrison government ‘ignored’ Climate Change Authority’s advice on Covid recovery

Report hails the chance to jump-start the economy and deal with climate change, but Labor says there was no official response

Adam Morton Environment
Thu 22 Oct 2020 03.30 AEDT

The Morrison government has been accused of ignoring advice from one of its agencies that it should use the economic response to Covid-19 to “set Australia up to prosper for generations to come” by directing stimulus spending to measures that also addressed the climate crisis.

A Climate Change Authority report submitted to the government in July says the stimulus package offered a “once-in-a-lifetime” chance to jump-start a recovery and deal with climate change by preparing for inevitable impacts and positioning Australia to take advantage of its abundant clean energy resources.

“It’s a win-win-win opportunity for economic recovery, resilience and prosperity in a low-emissions world,” the report says.

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The authority posted the report on its website without fanfare and it received little to no media coverage. It was submitted as governments across the globe were being urged to tackle the climate crisis alongside the pandemic.

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The Climate Change Authority report is available here.

What can I say – if there was ever a report which deserved to be stored in the circular filing cabinet, that would be a report which claims a massive subsidy programme is required to kickstart the production of cheaper energy.

Real economic opportunities don’t require subsidies. Investors flock to genuine money making opportunities of their own free will.

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