Adam Bandt has today called on Labor to listen to climate voters and refuse to open up catastrophic climate destroying gas projects of Scarborough in WA and the Beetaloo in the NT.
Former WA Premier, Colin Barnett, today is reported in the Australian Financial Review as saying:
“But climate change is what people talked about and Labor talked about [at the election] so it will be difficult to achieve a tougher target for 2030 when you’ve got a big project like Scarborough.
“The project needs to happen, but it’s going to be a dilemma for Albanese because a lot of people would say he’d be breaking his word – the emissions out of Scarborough dwarf everything else.”
Woodside’s Scarborough gas project will release 1.4b tonnes of pollution while pollution from the Beetaloo will increase Australia’s already high emissions by as much as 13%.
Yesterday, Kiribati’s former president Anote Tong and Tuvalu’s former prime minister Enele Sopoaga a commitment to no new coal and gas projects in Australia rather than “greenwashing” and political stunts.
As stated by Adam Bandt MP:
“Colin Barnett is right that if Labor proceeds with climate bombs like the Scarborough gas project, the increased emissions will ‘dwarf everything else’ and Labor won’t meet even its own weak climate targets.
“Labor proceeding with climate-destroying gas projects like Scarborough and Beetaloo would indeed be breaking a promise with people who voted for more climate action.”
“The first rule of dealing with an emergency is to stop making the problem worse but Labor is vowing to open up new methane projects like Scarborough and Beetaloo, adding fuel to the fire and putting a safe climate further out of reach.
“These projects can still be stopped. The incoming government has the power to hit the pause button, and that’s what the scientists are telling us we need to do because we’re in a climate emergency.
“For Whitehaven to suggest their economic contribution will assist budget recovery is shameless deception. Coal and gas corporations are amongst the most egregious tax avoiders in the country, so stopping new projects will have a very manageable impact on the Federal budget.
“‘Budget repair’ can be achieved by other means; climate repair cannot.”
