Article title: Fighting the future: the politics of climate policy failure in Australia (2015-20 (original) (raw)

Up and Down with Climate Politics 2013 -16: The Repeal of Carbon Pricing in Australia

The 2013 election of Australia's conservative Abbott Coalition (Liberal and National parties) government saw the repeal of carbon pricing, (which had previously been implemented by the Labor government in 2012), assume the first order of business. This Focus article reviews expert and political commentary and analysis of the repeal, and provides an overview of the Abbott government's dismantling and attempted dismantling of other climate initiatives. It reviews commentary and critiques of the government's substitute Direct Action (DA) policy and its capacity to reduce emissions. The views of the international community on the Abbott government's repositioning of Australia's climate policy are considered, as are the prospects of achieving effective emissions reduction policy under Abbott's successor, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The paper notes the role of the Senate in both assisting and frustrating government reforms, as well as aspects of policy continuity that could see a form of carbon pricing revived in future. It explores the correlation between the political ascension of Tony Abbott and his rejection of carbon pricing, whether his substitute direct action mechanism will effectively reduce emissions, and the adequacy of Australia current global climate policy aspirations. 'Toxic political debates and a policy bonfire over the past decade have prevented the emergence of a stable and compelling climate policy in Australia' 1 Australia's national climate change circumstances, its emissions inventory system and projections, its climate change policies, vulnerabilities, adaptation measures, research, education, training and public awareness were last reported to the United Nations in 2013 2. This report highlights the problem of Australia's extreme vulnerability to climate change, as one of the hottest, driest continents, with one of

Pricing Carbon: The Politics of Climate Change in Australia

This article provides an overview of the politics of climate policy with a focus on carbon pricing politics under recent Australian Labor governments. It reviews and explains the impact of politics upon climate policy and draws attention to the influence of the fossil fuel lobby. It reviews historical context, including early, failed attempts to set and pursue emissions reduction; the domestic and international recalcitrance of neoliberal leaders; and the recent shift to embrace carbon pricing. It considers the impact of politics upon climate policy outcomes, piecing together political and policy efforts to price carbon, and drawing attention to the agenda setting of the Australian States and Territories, and of Kevin Rudd both as Labor opposition leader and as Prime Minister. It argues that the capacity of industry to thwart effective carbon pricing was only checked by institutional influences once Labor assumed minority government in 2010. In these circumstances, Labor relied upon the Australian Greens, not only to support in part its government in office, but also to pass legislation in the Senate where the Greens hold the balance of power. Under these circumstances, carbon pricing could be negotiated and agreed upon by a Multi-Party Committee on Climate Change (MPCCC) comprising the government and its parliamentary supporters, including independents and the Greens. Whilst political and economic interests have largely shaped Australia's climate change agendas, it is concluded that policy shifts are nevertheless possible where there is a propitious combination of political, normative, and institutional influences.

Climate Policy Paralysis in Australia: Energy Security, Energy Poverty and Jobs

Energies

According to the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index, Australia was ranked as the worst-performing country on climate change policy. The country has an ambivalent record of climate policy development as well as implementation, and has been criticized for its inaction. This paper considers why the country has been locked in climate policy “paralysis” through analyzing defining attributes of such a paralysis, and the tentative connections between domestic energy policies and international trade and development. We conducted a media content analysis of 222 articles and identified media narratives in three cases of energy projects in the country involving thermal coal exports, domestic renewable energy storage, and closure of a domestic coal power station. The analysis reveals that policy paralysis in Australian climate change policy can be traced back to the countervailing arguments that have been pervasive around domestic energy security, rural employment and international energy po...

Bringing Paris Home: How Australia measures up against the new global climate agreement

In December 2015, at the Paris Climate Change Conference, the world reached a universal agreement for tackling climate change. On 22 April 2016, world leaders will sign the Paris Agreement in New York and ensure it enters into force as soon as possible. But for Australia, the gap between what this agreement demands of us and the level of commitments we currently have on the table remains extraordinarily wide. Australia continues to lag far behind other countries’ actions. The months since Paris have delivered forceful reminders of what is at stake: temperature records have been shattered; the Great Barrier Reef has suffered unprecedented bleaching; Cyclone Winston brought devastation to Fiji; and a super-charged El Niño wrought havoc across our region. Australia must act immediately to bring its actions into line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, including efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C, providing adequate support to developing countries, and protecting the rights of vulnerable communities. Australia has all it needs to be part of today’s climate and energy solutions, and to create a brighter future for Australia and the world. A majority of Australians support stronger action, but big polluters, vested interests and failures of political leadership are holding us back. As we approach the 2016 federal election, Australia needs a visionary plan of action to address climate change, and this should be at the heart of all parties’ agendas. This report outlines Australia’s three key tasks — to end carbon pollution, to support developing countries and to protect vulnerable communities — and compares political parties’ positions with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Book Review: Climate Politics and the Climate Movement in Australia (2013)

If it is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that scientific consensus has confirmed the anthropogenic causes of global climate change, it clearly doesn't follow that the usual non-scientific channels of communicating the scale of the problem are adequate to the task. References to old social planning terms like 'super wicked' for the problem of global climate change simply no longer cut it, and an ancillary term like 'hyperbolic discounting': policy-speak for burying your head in the sand, now only serves as an example of the kind of banal jargon that effectively elides common understanding.

The Australian Parliament and Climate Change: Are the Institutions Inadequate?

Professor Ross Garnaut, engaged by the Australian state and territory governments to report on the issue, once described climate change as a 'diabolical problem.' 1 So it has proved to be, with the issue contributing to the demise of the Howard Coalition Government, the Prime Ministership of Kevin Rudd, the ALP Government of Julia Gillard after Rudd, and the Leadership of the Opposition of both Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull – although Gillard continued to govern with the support of independents and the Greens. While climate change is indeed a problem, during 2009 there was bipartisan support for an emissions trading scheme, and it is difficult at first blush to understand why the Parliamentary arena is so liberally littered with political corpses. The inevitable question arises as to whether the recent history of policy on this issue calls the adequacy of Parliamentary institutions into question. This paper critically examines the recent trajectory of the issues at the...

Anti-politics and Global Climate Inaction: The Case of the Australian Carbon Tax

Critical Sociology, 2019

Action on climate change has enjoyed popular support in most Western countries. Despite this, successive governments have struggled to implement policy to tackle this issue. Using the case of opposition to the Clean Energy Act, passed in Australia to establish an emissions trading scheme, this paper argues that a growing and broad sentiment of distrust in political elites, described as 'anti-politics', can explain some of this contradiction. Particular forms of climate policy, in particular emissions trading schemes, have been successfully framed as policies that appeal to the interests of a new class of liberal elites while hurting ordinary working people. This frame was used successfully in Australia by conservative forces to oppose the Clean Energy Act. While used cynically by political leaders in this case, the paper argues that anti-political sentiment reflects genuine concerns about the detachment between the state and voting population. This detachment is reflected in neoliberal climate policies. Through briefly examining the cases of the Trump Administration's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Gilets Jaunes protest movement, the paper argues that while formulating climate policy we must consider anti-political sentiment, developing responses to the climate crisis from a bottom-up rather than top-down approach.