Australia’s Backstabbing Diplomacy (3)

 

[A]

Scotty from Marketing, Prime Minister of Australia, attended COP26. Federal Minister for Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor was with him. After a few days, both departed. However, they left behind James Isbister, a high-ranking and presumably well-paid bureaucrat (apparently a disabled one, unable to speak, too) as the Commonwealth’s representative. Or, at least, that’s how Isbister describes himself: “Australia's Ambassador for the Environment, Mr Jamie Isbister - promoting Australia's interests on international environment issues. DFAT Mental Health Champion”.

(source)

The Australian delegation attended the negotiations with the same rights and responsibilities of all other delegations. Once the draft of what became the so-called Glasgow Agreement was approved, the Australian delegation signed it.

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One of the few achievements of the Glasgow Agreement (which, I repeat, the Australia delegation signed) was an obligation for parties to the UNFCC (and Australia is one such party) to meet in 2022, bringing enhanced emissions reduction targets for 2030, because the ones actually made – if the parties took them seriously and acted on them – are insufficient to avoid global warming above 2.0ºC, let alone 1.5ºC. Morrison’s Australia, in particular, has not increased her commitments since 2015: a highly dubious 26 to 28% reduction.

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And yet, the draft had barely been signed, when Taylor and Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, in a joint media release, announced that “Australia’s 2030 target is fixed and we are committed to meeting and beating it, as we did with our Kyoto-era targets”. At the risk of stating the obvious: Australia, they say, will not change her 2030 targets, whatever the Glasgow Agreement demanded of her.

Readers, more charitable than me, might say I’m reading too much in that.

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(source)

The readers are wrong. This morning the head clown had a chat with journos:

Journalist: Are you ruling out a more ambitious 2030 target for COP27, if you’re elected?

Prime Minister: Well, all that happened at COP26 was all countries noted a request to revisit these things. But I’ve been very clear about what our target is, and that we will meet and beat it. See, we are going to achieve a 35 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. That’s what we’re going to achieve and that’s what actually matters. It’s, what matters is what you actually achieve. And, so, we’re well above our target.

Let me translate that for foreign readers: Scotty means he won’t honour that agreement. No, scratch that. He means he’ll swipe his ass crack with the Glasgow Agreement. The trip to Glasgow was just an expensive roll of toilet paper.

Does that actually surprise you? Really? It doesn’t surprise me. In fact, I’ve told you this would happen.

Remember the French submarines? It was only two months ago. Australia had a contract. She broke it on false pretences, without even the courtesy of a heads up.

Commitments mean shit to Scotty.

If Morrison’s Australia did that with a rich, powerful nation, do you really think his “Pacific family” can expect better? Actually, can Australians expect better?

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Honour, solidarity, decency, honesty, truth are not in Morrison’s vocabulary; his mind cannot understand those notions. I told you so.

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The exchange with the press went on:

Journalist: Why don’t you make that your target then, if you’re going to get to 35 per cent anyway?

Prime Minister: Because our policy is to meet and beat, that’s what we do.

Translation: Scotty has no confidence in his “plan”, but he won’t admit it. Thus, spin, spin, spin.

Scotty’s “reduction” is a statistical fluke, product of COVID19. That, and an already questionable fall in emissions due to LULUCF. Those are the “policies” behind Scotty’s “meet and beat”.

CO2 emissions will rebound with the economic recovery.

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Let me put this another way. A net zero target for 2050 is not a concession the Morrison clique made to the Australian people after eight years demanding action on climate change; it’s the concession.

Scotty’s real plan: To make them increase the 2030 targets will take another 8 years. 

And that’s what we’ll get unless we raise hell.

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Unless there was a way to strong-arm Australia, I said then, this lying, indecent, dishonest, backstabbing piece of shit Government would wreck the efforts of the world.

I’d rather be wrong on that; unfortunately, I don’t think I am.

Personally, I don’t recognise this Government’s legitimacy. You shouldn’t either. Australia must be declared an international pariah.

Image Credits
[A] Author: Brandon Blinkenberg. Source: WikiMedia. File licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license. My usage of the file does not suggest Brandon Blinkenberg endorses me or said usage.