CLIMATE CHANGE – THE GREATEST MORAL CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME
Dear Editor,
Kevin Rudd made the most profound statement of his political career when he described climate change as “the greatest moral challenge of our time”. At the time I thought it was an interesting choice of words. Certainly, a challenge – but a moral one? How could reducing CO2 emissions be a ‘moral’ challenge?
Rudd’s words resonate when I look back over the 32 years the world has attempted to address climate change.
The first conference on climate change was held in Kyoto, Japan, 25 years ago. The Kyoto Protocol generated from that conference was an international treaty extending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that committed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 1992.
1992 was 32 years ago. For almost one-third of a century, the world has been concerned about manmade climate change and acted on it, but nothing has happened. The sawtooth graph of rising CO2 levels continues ever upwards. Back in 1992, I would imagine leaders would have realised the world would need time to react to an issue of this magnitude. Perhaps 10 years before we would see change? But 32 years and still no change?
And if you think the call to action has only recently reached the fevered pitch we hear now, think again. For 32 years the media has been rigorously highlighting the dire consequences of inaction. Politicians and leaders have stood up year in year out for all that time and implored us to act. Legislation has been enacted and ‘binding’ agreements made. Windfarms and solar farms have gone up everywhere. Yet there has been no progress.
Perhaps some of those in favour of the Coonerang windfarm are now saying I have just made their case even more compelling. However, unless we can address the major contradictions and compromises Australia and the world is engaged in, there is very little point. We have, so far, been unable to address the “greatest moral challenge of our time”.
Three of the moral challenges are listed below.
Population
Australia has one of the highest population growth rates in the developed world. Despite opinion polls regularly showing a desire among voters for low or zero population growth, high population growth remains mainstream policy on both sides of politics.
This is because population growth means economic growth and that’s good for election prospects. The link between population growth and economic growth is rarely mentioned or explained. Also, those who are pro-population growth argue that unless we have more young people coming into the workforce all the time, our national age structure will be out of balance. They say we need more younger people working to support older people when they retire and become welfare dependent.
While this may be true it is short sighted and unsustainable because Australia is finite, and these young workers will in time get old and then we will need even larger numbers of younger workers to support them. And so on. Then at some stage we will reach a point where we physically can’t take any more people. Governments know this but are happy to take the easy option now and pass the buck to some other government, some years down the track, to deal with a really difficult problem.
Last year, Australia built 170,000 new homes. As part of the 2023 National Housing Accord, Federal, State and Territory leaders have agreed to build 1.2M homes over the next five years. A total of 240,000 new homes per year. The Federal government has promised $3B in funding to states and territories to achieve this goal.
Someva Renewables company claims Coonerang Wind Farm will provide power for 65,000 homes. If that’s true, (albeit only when the wind blows) at current rates of population growth and home building, the Coonerang windfarm will make a difference for about 3-4 months. After that, as the population and number of homes grow, we will need more energy and then more again and so on indefinitely – or until population growth stops. Population growth is Moral Challenge No.1
Coal
Australian governments have a completely contradictory policy when it comes to coal. It is considered absolutely essential to stop burning coal in Australia but completely fine to export and burn it overseas.
This is because coal is a huge export industry and generates enormous amounts of money for Australian governments through the payments of royalties and taxes. If we removed royalties and taxes flowing from coal, Australian governments would not have enough money for many essential services.
In a recent article in the financial pages of a national newspaper, a coal industry leader said the coal industry could look forward to continued growth and prosperity “for decades to come”. The article was looking at coal purely on the basis of its business prospects. Coal miners are bullish and despite those who say coal is a sunset industry, the facts speak very differently. In 2023 the world set a new record for the amount of coal burnt in one year. The previous record year was 2022.
So hungry are state governments for the revenue flowing from coal and other minerals that last year the treasurer of Queensland threatened BHP with cancellation of its non-operational mining leases telling them they would be re-issued to other mining companies if BHP did not develop and start production soon. The Coal Industry is Moral Challenge No. 2
China
Every 10 months greenhouse gas emissions in China go up by the equivalent of Australia’s total emissions. In other words, if we reached Net Zero tomorrow, in 10 months that achievement would be totally obliterated by the increase in China’s emissions. We are spending an enormous amount of money and causing an enormous amount of upheaval in this country for just 10 months of CO2 abatement. Recently our PM visited China and since arriving home has been telling us how he has improved our relations with China and export bans are being lifted. One of those bans was coal and China is now resuming imports of Australian coal.
China is our biggest trading partner and biggest export market. They are also a country that so far has not agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in any meaningful way until 2030 and will only become carbon neutral by 2060. Their commitment is questionable to say the least – in the first half of 2023, China approved the construction of 52 gigawatts of new coal power. One gigawatt is the equivalent of one large coal power plant.
We take out sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine but do nothing to penalise China (and India for that matter) for a potentially far, far more serious impact on humanity and the world. The reason is economics. Without China our economy would suffer. China is Moral Challenge No. 3
Is there a way forward? There is an old saying “If you correctly identify the problem, you are halfway to finding the solution.” The world has yet to correctly identify the problem as Kevin Rudd did.
Politicians need to be honest with the people they represent and if they present the facts truthfully and humbly, and acknowledge we can no longer afford unfettered growth, they might be surprised at the acceptance they get.
I would also urge Sustainable Population Australia and other groups to lobby political parties hard for a referendum to ask the Australian people how big they want their country to be. A critical and fundamental starting point.
We need sincere and honest evaluation as to how the world has reached the point it’s at and if we can do that, we can change the trajectory we are on.
Acknowledging and understanding the greatest moral challenge of our time is the crucial first step.
When that happens, I will sacrifice our landscape if necessary. In the meantime, there is very little point.
Jim Litchfield,
Hazeldean,
Cooma, NSW.
