British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that Australia was denied a speaking slot at a leaders’ climate ambition summit in December last year because his government had not set ambitious commitments to address the climate crisis.
In a sign of the growing international pressure over climate, Johnson also said that he expected Australia to set a timeframe this year to meet net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and increase its short-term commitments — steps that the Morrison government continues to resist.
The comments were included in a letter dated Dec. 8 last year — four days before the summit — that was tabled in an Australian Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Monday night.
Photo: Reuters
Johnson said that the British president of the next major climate summit in Glasgow, Alok Sharma, had told Australian Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor why Morrison had not been allocated a speaking berth.
“You’ll understand that we have tried to set a high bar for this summit to encourage countries to come forward with ambitious commitments,” he wrote.
Morrison was embarrassed by the summit rejection, having earlier told the Australian parliament that he would use his appearance to “correct mistruths” about his government’s oft-criticized record on emissions reduction.
Morrison had reportedly wanted to use the summit to say that Australia no longer expected to use controversial “carryover credits” to meet its 2030 emissions target.
Australia’s plan to use the credits was diplomatically contentious, and other countries did not see a pledge to potentially drop it as an ambitious step. Dozens of nations opposed their use at the last major climate summit in Madrid on the grounds they do not represent new emissions cuts.
A former French environment minister, Laurence Tubiana, said it suggested that Australia was “cheating” on the Paris Agreement.
Australia is facing rising pressure to set a goal of meeting net-zero emissions no later than 2050.
More than 100 countries have set this target, and it is backed by Australian state governments, and many business and civic leaders.
While the 2050 target remains a point of dispute, the UK and the US are focused on encouraging countries to set more ambitious 2030 goals before the Glasgow conference, known as COP26.
The UK and the EU last year set targets of a 68 percent and 55 percent cut by 2030, compared with 1990 emission levels respectively. Canada and Japan are expected to set new 2030 goals before a G7 meeting in England in June.
Australia’s 2030 emissions target is a 26 to 28 percent cut below 2005 levels, while scientists and analysts have calculated that the target should be doubled if the country is to play its part under a global net-zero goal.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in