On Gadigal land, outside the office of Australia's federal Environment Minister @TanyaPlibersek's office, with a large group of school students and their allies, demanding the Australian government #EndFossilFuelSubsidies and commit to #NoNewFossilFuels. #SS4C
Stop repeating their talking points & narratives (not sure which commonly-repeated tropes are part of their decades-long #ClimateDisinformation campaign? Never too late to learn)
Consider the stakes: life as we know it is incompatible with the public business plans of the most powerful corporations on the planet. One/both of those realities will definitely change. Will you?
"Five global north governments stand out as the biggest #ClimateHypocrites and most egregious #PlanetWreckers: the #UnitedStates, #Canada, #Australia, #Norway, and the #UnitedKingdom. Despite having the greatest economic means to rapidly phase out production, they are responsible for a majority (51%) of planned expansion from new #oil and #gas fields through 2050. New drilling in countries with high incomes, diversified economies and outsized historical responsibility for causing the #ClimateCrisis, while claiming to be #ClimateLeaders, is inexcusable. These countries must not only stop expansion immediately but also move first and fastest to phase out their production and pay their fair share to fund a just global #EnergyTransition.”
Headline quote says that the Australian #ALP government is "missing half the equation" when it comes to taking action to mitigate climate disruption.
While there is federal support for expanding cleaner forms of energy, the Australian government continues to approve new coal and gas projects, and even create new forms of indirect #DirtyEnergySubsidies (such as federal funding for the #MiddleArm industrial hub in #Darwin, representing a substantial gift to the #FossilGas industry). Hence, they are "missing half the equation".
But I would argue that they are missing most of the equation, because stopping the increase of climate-disrupting greenhouse gases from being emitted by winding down the #DirtyEnergy industry as rapidly and humanely as possible is the single biggest aspect of #ClimateAction. Doing so will require replacement forms of energy (and all kinds of shifts in how energy is used), yes, but this is actually a secondary goal required to achieve the main one: an end to humanity's dependence on dirty energy ASAP.
After giving a climate talk to a community group the other day, one guy came up to me to "give feedback" (i.e. complain that I didn't focus enough on telling people how to cut their personal #CarbonFootprint - to use the phrase that #BP really wants us to focus on).
This led into a discussion about why individual consumer choices always have the system stacked against them. As part of that point, I mentioned the enormous scale of #DirtyEnergySubsidies (>$7t globally each year, though I focused on $11b annually in Australia, which is a widely cited figure based on a narrower definition of subsidy; he seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't care as much if I wasn't talking about his country.)
Upon hearing of these subsidies (which were apparently news to him), he said "yeah, but how much tax do they contribute?"
How much tax #DirtyEnergy companies pay is largely irrelevant to the question we were discussing, since a company that is both taxed and receives significant subsidies will do better than a competitor (e.g. a renewable energy company) that is taxed and doesn't receive those subsidies. I probably should have said something like that. (I could also have made a point about government funds not being derived from taxation, but I really didn't get the vibe that that was going to be particularly fruitful approach for this gentleman.)
Instead I replied that dirty energy companies pay relatively little tax due to exploiting tax loopholes (that they also lobby to put in). He scoffed in disbelief and changed the subject.
With that context, now you'll understand how embarrassed I was to have just stumbled across this table for 2020–21 and realise I was wrong.
Of the twenty-four largest dirty energy companies in Australia, only one of them paid “relatively little” income tax that year.
The usual line from the #DirtyEnergy spokespeople elected to parliament is that Australia is too small a player for Oz energy policy to make any significant contribution to #ClimateDisruption.
It's always been a lie. Australia has always punched above its weight when it comes to climate responsibility, having the largest fossil fuel resources per capita in the world.
For years, courts have even largely accepted the government's 'drug dealer' defence when it comes to approving new coal and gas projects ("if we don't sell it, someone else will, who doesn't even have our standards!").
But if you want to see the lie laid bare, check this story. The mere possibility of temporary industrial action at a single Australian dirty energy company is already having global impacts on gas markets.