0
0
Australia is already doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is not making any additional plans or targets to do so, Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
He has emphasized that the country is doing its best to become climate neutral, but he does not want to set a deadline for it.
Morrison responded to the alarming report the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published Monday. That warned that global temperatures are now rising faster than initially thought. It talks about code red and states that irreversible catastrophic climate change is imminent. It could already be 1.5 degrees warmer in 2030, and it was intended to stay that way. This would mainly be due to human activities that increase the impending doom due to the emission of fossil fuels.
Morrison is willing to contribute more to reduce emissions, but not if measures will impose an enormous burden on certain groups or regions. That would also cause political problems, according to local media. Morrison remains opposed to additional taxes on emissions and does not want to set a time when the country should be carbon neutral, not even the year 2050.
“I can’t sign a blank check on behalf of Australia for targets that are not planned for,” Morrison said. He argues that these kinds of uncertain objectives will ultimately cost the country much more than anticipated.
Australia is used to extreme drought and heat and has forest fires almost every year. However, the fires are getting more intense, and that would be due to a warmer climate. For example, in the Australian summer from August 2019 to March 2020, 12 million hectares of land burned down. This is partly attributed to changes in the species and the state of the vegetation.
