What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
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And to make up for the last four years of contributing nothing (and even putting aside the many years of failure under the #Coalition between 2013–19 when finances ought to have been ramping up to meet the 2020 goal), #Australia has a backlog of about $AU20b to be seen as anything like a 'fair' contributor to the #GreenClimateFund, remembering that the US$100b/yr represents only a fraction of what the developing world needs to ensure a just and swift transition to a climate-stable future.
And that's before we consider the #LossAndDamage fund announced a few days ago (another long-term sticking point in #UNFCCC negotiations and a separate piece of international #ClimateFinance), to which Australia has not yet made any kind of pledge.
Until Australia takes credible steps towards those kinds of figures, Australian government promises ought to be treated by all our neighbours as so much smoke.
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