Greens Senator Nick McKim has broken ranks with the climate lobby to call out their behaviour during negotiations over the federal government’s safeguard mechanism.
McKim, the Economic Justice and Treasury spokesperson for the Greens said emissions reductions would be significantly less under the mechanism but negotiations were hampered by the climate lobby.
“Listening to senior figures in the enviro movement publicly regurgitating ALP speaking points while negotiations were at a critical stage was gutting. For the [Australian Conservation Fund (ACF)] to urge us to walk away from our demand for no new coal and gas at a crucial time was nothing less than culpable,” McKim wrote on Twitter.
“There are honourable exceptions, but the movement has some lessons to learn. It needs to focus less on lobbying and careerism and more on activism and campaigning.”
He also called for climate activists to return to their roots and get people back on the streets.
“For anyone who thinks the climate wars are over, think again. They have barely begun,” he said.
ACF Commends Negotiations So Far
Despite McKim’s comments, the Foundation said the mechanism was a critical start but “not the final word on real climate action.”“The ACF commends Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Greens leader Adam Bandt for reaching an agreement to significantly improve the safeguard mechanism with measures including setting a hard cap on emissions,” the advocacy group said.
“With these improvements, Australia’s biggest domestic polluters will come under greater scrutiny and regulation, but there is a long way to go to break Australia’s reliance on coal and gas.
“A mechanism that curbs the emissions of Australia’s biggest polluters is just one of many policy changes Australia needs to get serious about tackling the climate crisis.”
However, they signalled that they would have liked to see the end of exporting coal and gas.
Greens Amendments Draw Concerns
Among the changes introduced by the Greens is a hard cap that limits Australia’s gross greenhouse gas emissions to 140 million tonnes a year. However, the ceiling is expected to decrease over time.There will also be a “pollution trigger” that requires the climate change minister to test the impact of a new or expanded project on the hard cap and net carbon budgets.
The bill will also dictate all new gas fields for export to achieve zero emissions from day one, and require corporations to justify their use of carbon offsets if they offset over 30 percent of their base CO2 emissions.
Other amendments include methane monitoring, and restrictions on using government funds to subsidise coal and gas projects.
But Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham has warned the deal could impact the revenue streams of large energy firms, warning it could have a ripple effect for households.
“What is going to occur if, as the Greens claim, it is going to stifle gas industry investment?” he told Sky News Australia on March 28.
“Because that has flow-on consequences and impacts for Australian businesses, Australian households, in terms of the availability of gas and therefore the price and reliability of gas for production purposes in industry, as well as what it means for electricity markets, too.”
Birmingham said the implications must be fully understood before the Parliament passes the bill, but he suspected Labor would “seek to rush this through from here.”
“I hope, though, that given this deal has been stitched up behind closed doors between Labour and the Greens, they do allow a proper process for a full exploration of the consequences of what they’re doing.”
