{"id":31074,"date":"2015-12-10T18:46:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T07:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=31074"},"modified":"2019-04-16T13:31:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T03:31:17","slug":"fossiloftheday-for-julie-bishops-endorsement-of-coal-for-australia-reports-takvera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/fossiloftheday-for-julie-bishops-endorsement-of-coal-for-australia-reports-takvera\/","title":{"rendered":"#FossiloftheDay for Julie Bishop’s endorsement of #coal for Australia reports @takvera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_6435-fossil-of-the-day-feature\"<\/a>
\nAustralia and Argentina shared a first place Fossil of the Day award for Wednesday 9th December at the UN Climate Change conference in Paris, for fostering coal projects when the world is rapidly turning away from coal due to the impact of greenhouse gases in driving climate change. <\/p>\n

Leader of the Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale was on hand to receive the award for Australia.<\/p>\n

Both Argentina and Australia endorsed inclusion of the 1.5 degree temperature limit<\/a>, along with the 2 degree C limit, in the operative text of the draft agreement during negotiations. At least 109 countries of the 196 countries attending the conference have stated they want to see this lower limit included, lead by the Climate Vulnerable Forum<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, I have been hearing that the Australian delegation has been a positive force providing bridging and compromise proposals between other parties to help the French Presidency of the conference achieve an agreement at the end.<\/p>\n

On the Tuesday evening Julie Bishop, leading Australia’s delegation as the Foreign Affairs Minister, made the following statement at a forum hosted by Indonesia called “Pathways to a Sustainable Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy\u201d to push the case for Australian fossil fuels. (See Renew Economy: Paris, COP21: Australia digs in on fossil fuels, sees coal as solution to hunger<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n“Technological breakthroughs and innovation will drive much of the change that will underpin the transition to a low-carbon economy.<\/p>\n

“That means coal-fired power generation is here to stay,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Fossil fuels will remain critical to promoting prosperity, growing economies, alleviating hunger for years to come,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It is a fact that energy is a mainstay of our respective countries’ export markets and underpins economic growth.” reported the ABC<\/a>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So it is the same line from Abbott that coal is good for humanity<\/a>, when air pollution is choking the cities of China and India, causing huge health problems and a major cause of deaths. <\/p>\n

Her comments were highly insensitive in timing, being made during and at the Climate conference where most countries are trying to phase out coal mining and coal power stations.<\/p>\n

In Argentina it is the last day in power for the current government, and they are rushing to approve a law that declares coal production in the national interest, paving the way for the nationalisation of coal production through state-owned companies. It is outrageous that a country like Argentina that could power the entire continent with wind energy (no-kidding) is trying to invest in Coal. <\/p>\n

A second place fossil of the day award went to Canada, New Zealand and the USA (not their first time for being taken to task on this issue) for insisting on an explicit exclusion of compensation and liability in the loss and damage negotiations. Vulnerable developing countries already decided not to formally push for compensation in October. <\/p>\n

According to the Climate Action Network statement, “The behaviour of our fossil winners has unnecessarily distracted from a constructive discussion on how to anchor loss and damage in the Paris Agreement allowing the global response to evolve over time, as the problem requires, and without being able to solve the compensation issue here anyway. This is not acceptable given the very legitimate demands of vulnerable countries not to be left alone to cope with the loss and damage they are not responsible for.<\/p>\n