I established this page to track Australian Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor at the UN Climate Conference, but with current events surrounding this scandal plagued minister his attendance at COP25 is still up in the air.
Minister Angus Taylor plane arrived on Sunday.
There is an official Australian function on Monday night co-organised by Australia and Carbon Market Institute. Here is Minister Angus speech to the gathered Australians:
and comment by Richie Merzian, Climate and Energy director of The Australia Institute:
Ambition comes from practical solutions, the Minister for Emissions Reductions @AngusTaylorMP tells Australian stakeholders in Madrid
— Richie Merzian (@RichieMerzian) December 9, 2019
Most practical thing to raise ambition in Australia at #COP25 is to restrict use of Kyoto credits towards Paris 2030 target #auspol
Angus Taylor's speech on behalf of Australia to the main plenary is scheduled for around 1pm on Wednesday, and will be webcast by the UNFCCC.
- Angus Taylor set to lead Australian ministerial delegation at COP25
- New Australian Ambassador for the Environment, Jamie Isbister
- Australian intention to Use Kyoto Credits for Paris target
Angus Taylor set to lead Australian ministerial delegation at COP25?
The ministerial lead for Australia at COP25 was put forward to be Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor. He is currently under investigation because of a false accusation against the Sydney Lord Mayor based upon a doctored document about the travel expenditute of City of Sydney Council.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has refused to stand down Angus Taylor from his ministerial dutes after NSW police launched a strike force to investiage the fake documents scandal. Without a pair being granted by Labor, the Government faces the possibility of losing votes on the floor of the House of Representatives if Minister Taylor travels to Europe.
Australia could go without ministerial representation, which would leave Australia out of the backroom negotiating deals - a dangerous option considering Australia wants to 'do a deal' on Kyoto carbon credits. Or Foreign Minister Marise Payne could attend, or Environment Minister Sussan Ley. We might not know the outcome until the end of the first week when the high level sessions with Ministers are due to start.
The Federal Labor Opposition has now denied the beseiged Minister, Angus Taylor, a parliamentary pair to attend energy and climate events in Europe next week including COP25 in Madrid. The Greens in New South Wales have referred the police commissioner to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) over a telephone conversation that Prime Minister made to the Police Commissioner over the investigation.
Now denied a "pariamentary pair", "Taylor will instead miss a ministerial meeting to be convened by the International Energy Agency in Paris, remaining in Canberra for the final sitting week, and will then head to Spain for the second week of the UN climate talks to be held in Madrid." writes Michael Marzengarb in Renew Economy.
Our Energy Minister is an anti-wind farm campaigner that has been involved in serial scandals over water mismanagement (Watergate), threatened grasslands and biodiverity poisining (Grassgate) and now the fake documents scandal involving Sydney City Council and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
Simon Holmes à Court wrote in September 2018 that "Angus Taylor is not a climate science denier – he’s much more dangerous."
Read Guardian newspaper cartoonist First Dog on the Moon's take here:
Serial gateist #AngusTaylor and the mystery of the faked documents | @FirstDogonMoon #watergate #grassgate #AngusGate https://t.co/5OS1u0AvEc pic.twitter.com/feI8MOpMDA
— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) November 27, 2019
- RenewEconomy 27 Nov 2019: Labor ramps up pressure on Taylor, the minister who wouldn’t be missed
- RenewEconomy, 26 Nov, 2019 - Morrison refuses to stand down Taylor after NSW police launches strike force
- The Guardian, 28 Nov 2019: Labor rebuffs Angus Taylor’s request for parliamentary cover to attend UN climate talks
- Sydney Morning Herald, Nov 28, 2019 - Labor steps up attack on Angus Taylor, refuses a pair to attend energy summit
- RenewEconomy, 29 Nov 2019 - Australia’s emissions fall ever so slightly, but only because of drought and floods
- Political Background story from the Guardian on Angus Taylor, 'Watergate', 'grassgate' and fake document scandals: 30 Nove 2019: The Angus Taylor story: from the Liberals' golden boy to a man on the edge
- RenewEconomy 2 December, 2019 - Will Morrison trust Australia’s rookie team heading to Madrid climate talks?
New Australian Ambassador for the Environment
The Australia diplomatic delegation at the UN Climate Conference COP25 in Madrid will be lead by new Ambassador for the Environment Jamie Isbister.
He replaces Patrick Suckling who recently resigned. Patrick Suckling at COP24 in 2018 featured on a US sponsored forum promoting coal. It is refreshing to see that after he has left his diplomatic role he is calling for far more political ambition from Australian Government.
- Foreign Minister Press release, 18 November 2019 - Ambassador for the Environment
- See Canberra Times Nov 12, 2019: We need urgent and increasing action on climate change, not ambivalence
Australian intention to Use Kyoto Credits for Paris target
Australia intends to use Kyoto carry over credits to meet Australia's already very low climate target of 26-28 percent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030. If this carbon accounting trick is allowed between two different climate treaties, Australia would halve it's announced effective target to about 15 per cent emissions reduction by 2030. Australia is expected to attempt to negotiate use of Kyoto Protocol carbon credits as part of the Article 6 negotiations at COP26.
There’s no point in carrying over Kyoto Protocol credits - it just undermines already far too low ambition says Gilles Dufrasne of @CarbonMrktWatch pic.twitter.com/78GBgQH8vC
— Julie-Anne Richards (@jar_climate) December 1, 2019
Last year at COP24 in Katowice, Poland Australia received a Fossil of the Day Award for not ruling out Kyoto carbon credits for Paris target use.
It looks like the draft text has an option for forbidding use of Kyoto Protocol units to meet Paris Agreement Targets:
#Article6.4 contd.
— Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) December 7, 2019
The other heavyweight political issue is transition of Kyoto activities & "units"…text mostly unchanged.
But one key (re)insertion of an extra option, that would rule out Australian plans to use Kyoto units to meet its Paris pledge.https://t.co/7j0g4ivO5F pic.twitter.com/TIOgVT2Q8E
Comment by Mike Cannon Brooks...
Wow. If this #COP25 article is adopted in the final, I believe Australia’s current “carryover credits cheat” wouldn’t work.
— Mike Cannon-Brookes 👨🏼💻🧢 (@mcannonbrookes) December 7, 2019
That could be catastrophic for the government politically, but great for the country environmentally (we’d have to take real action).
Watch this space 🌱 https://t.co/kxsl5Hju9m
More updated analysis of the text and the 'Australia clause by Simon Evans:
Great analysis from @DrSimEvans on the new ‘Australia clause’ being threshed out at #COP25 https://t.co/WFvbuEfLOd
— Hugo Temby (@hjtemby) December 10, 2019
It's not only Angus Taylor supporting this Kyoto Loophole:
I’m all for putting the boot into Angus Taylor for trying to cheat with Kyoto carryover credits, but remember that @bhp supports cheating too, as do Australia’s most powerful lobby groups: @APPEALtd @BCAcomau @MineralsCouncil #COP25 https://t.co/rKYXeaQMmO
— Dan Gocher (@justdanfornow) December 9, 2019
The Guardian has highlighted that there are now 'anti-Australia' clauses in the negotiating text. (9 Dec, 2019 - About 100 countries at UN climate talks challenge Australia's use of carryover credits)
Bill Hare, the chief executive of Climate Analytics in Berlin and a long-time adviser to developing countries at climate talks, said using carryover credits was opposed by three major negotiating blocs – the alliance of small island states, the least developed countries group and the independent alliance of Latin America and the Caribbean – as well as Canada, Switzerland and Norway.
“There [are about] 100 countries supporting this [challenge],” Hare said from Madrid.
- The Guardian, Thu 21 Nov 2019 - Diplomacy the solution to standoff over Australia's use of carryover credits, officials say
- RenewEconomy, 15 November 2019 - Australia may seek forgiveness, rather than permission, for Kyoto carryover
- The Guardian, 22 Oct 2019 - Australia is the only country using carryover climate credits, officials admit
- The Guardian 9 Dec, 2019 - About 100 countries at UN climate talks challenge Australia's use of carryover credits
This page is likely to have more content...
Sources:
- Photo: Angus Taylor at CEBIT conference, May 2018. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
No comments:
Post a Comment