ketan , 9 days ago

There has been a resurgence of climate coverage in Australia after opposition leader Peter Dutton said he plans to drop 2030 targets if elected next year. At least a few hundred articles frame this as "the climate wars".

But when it comes to rejecting the spirit of the Paris Agreement and the call for maximum effort in eliminating fossil fuels, there has been close to zero scrutiny of Labor's planned approach to hitting a 43% cut by 2030.

And if you care about Peter Dutton rejecting the heart of the Paris Climate Agreement, you should also care about Labor doing the same, but in a significantly more subtle and corrosive way.

Both major parties wrongly blend temporary land carbon data with multi-millenia fossil carbon, and in doing so, allow worse ongoing burning of fossil fuels while still "achieving" targets. But the land-use data get revised too: and these revisions are so significant that, by my calculations, Labor could now fail to hit its power sector target, and see zero reductions in the transport sector due to fuel standards, and STILL HIT THE 43% TARGET.

This is what is seen as 'climate peace': a broad agreement to avoid tackling the real cause of the threat to our safety. Does that feel peaceful, to you?

Have a read of my new post explaining how this all works, here: https://ketanjoshi.co/2024/06/16/the-hollowness-of-the-2030-targets-debate/

And last weekend's deep dive into land-use revisions, here: https://ketanjoshi.co/2024/06/02/australias-land-use-emissions-data-revisions-are-an-engine-of-climate-delay/