Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] My community just cannot fathom that we are still debating climate change in the Australian parliament. My community just cannot understand, and certainly does not tolerate, the fact that there are so many members of the House for whom the science is not settled, who don't believe the science. My community can't believe that there is not, by now, the strongest possible bipartisan response to climate change. We can't believe, down here in Tasmania, that the government has not pulled out all stops, that the government doesn't treat climate change as a genuine emergency and respond as though it's a genuine emergency. How on earth can the federal government not respond to the International Energy Agency and its very clear advice—that there must be no more carbon based energy production from this year, no more coal-fired power stations, no more oil, no more gas projects? And what about the latest IPCC report, which we're expecting out later tonight, advising that the average global temperatures will by 2030 increase by 1.5 degrees centigrade, which will be a full decade earlier than we expected as recently as only three years ago?

The fact is we have an emergency. We have to start dealing with the emergency with a very clear understanding of what I think is the main takeout from this evening's IPCC report—that is, the atmosphere is now full. We don't have until 2050 to get our emissions down to net zero; the atmosphere is full. So rather than talking about 2050, as is the case by many people in the House—by the government and the opposition—

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