Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Making big climate pledges was a cheap political win when the goal was way off in the future. But now the first deadlines are approaching, long serving politicians in countries like Australia are in the increasingly embarrassing position of having to explain their total lack of achievement.

Australia accused of ‘shamefully’ holding back global action on climate change

United Nations calls on all countries to have ‘concrete plans to phase out fossil fuels as fast as possible’

Adam Morton and Daniel Hurst
Sat 27 Feb 2021 06.01 AEDT

Australia has been accused of “shamefully doing nothing” and weighing down global action after a UN analysis found national pledges to cut greenhouses gas emissions over the next decade have barely begun to do what is necessary to tackle the climate crisis.

The assessment of emissions reduction plans submitted to the UN by the end of last year found if all were fulfilled they would cut global CO2 by only 1% by 2030, compared with 2010 levels.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has advised a 45% cut is needed over this time to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

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Patricia Espinosa, the executive secretary of UN Climate Change, called on all countries, including those that submitted their commitments last year, to reflect on the new assessment and lift their ambition. “We need concrete plans to phase out fossil fuels as fast as possible,” she said.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/27/australia-accused-of-shamefully-holding-back-global-action-on-climate-change

There is no viable path to global net zero except nuclear power. The staggering extractive minerals cost and manufacturing effort required to go 100% renewable is well beyond our civilisation’s current engineering capabilities. Google tried and failed to find a path to 100% renewable energy. Green Left Film producer Michael Moore gets that renewables will not replace fossil fuel. Nature presenter David Attenborough has called for a green “Apollo Project”, to try to bridge the currently insurmountable technology gaps.

But with nuclear off the table in most countries, politicians, especially long serving politicians, are in the increasingly hilarious position of trying to explain why they have achieved nothing, but are still sincere about their commitment.

The renewable push will end in certain failure. The gross failure of renewables is becoming increasingly difficult to conceal. But at least we’ll get some entertainment value for our money, watching our politicians publicly denounce each other in an effort to shift the blame for all those broken green promises.

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