Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The fact that the Government is failing to do its fair share of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures by continuing to approve new coal mines and gas fields and refusing to adopt strong 2030 emissions targets of 75% below 2005 levels.

I rise to contribute to this debate today, and it is an important debate because, in less than two weeks time, the Prime Minister of this country is going to be travelling to Glasgow to meet with world leaders in relation to the biggest threat that humanity has seen, and that, of course, is climate change and the climate crisis, a crisis that has been brought about by the enormous amounts of pollution that are pumped into our atmosphere because of the burning of fossil fuels. Of course, one of the key elements that world leaders like the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Scott Morrison, are being asked to contribute to this most important global meeting is a commitment to cut pollution and to stop expanding the projects that make climate change worse.

The International Energy Agency has said in no uncertain terms that there can be no more new oil, gas or coal projects opened, created or built if we are to achieve zero pollution and a target for net zero pollution in order to keep temperatures at below 1.5 degrees, which is what we know we need if we are to stop the most dangerous elements of climate change. Only a couple of months ago, last time the Senate was meeting here in this place, we were discussing and debating the recent report by the world's leading climate scientists. They said we have less than a decade to take the urgent action needed—less than a decade to cut pollution to keep the rise in temperature below that important element of 1.5 degrees—if we are to have a fighting chance of stopping runaway climate change.

We can already see the effect of climate change all around us. Only two summers ago we saw those devastating bushfires rip through bushland in regional and rural Australia. We saw billions of hectares of Australia's forests and wilderness areas go up in smoke. We saw three billion animals in this country perish because of those bushfires. We saw dozens of towns and cities in this country choked with smoke.

COVID-19 has brought about an enormous amount of concern and fear right around the world. Governments have been called to take urgent action to stop the spread of this most devastating disease. Governments, largely, have responded—of all political persuasions, at all levels. Governments and political leaders have listened to the science, listened to the experts, and taken the swift action needed to stop the spread and the escalation of this disease. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we saw the same type of response from our political leaders that we've seen in relation to COVID-19 for action to save the climate and our planet—listening to the science, taking the swift action that's needed, showing leadership and investing in the transition to an economy and a society that is cleaner, greener and safer.

If we thought that the crippling effect of COVID-19, a disease that has ripped through not just our communities in Australia but around the world, was bad, just wait until we see the diseases that rip through our communities when climate change really hits. The experts tell us that's what's coming—unless we take the action that's needed in the next decade to cut pollution. That's why, as a country, we need to be taking to the world's most important summit— (Time expired)