With federal and state governments passing the buck on taking responsibility for the worsening climate emergency, it’s easy for activists to despair.
“Why don’t they read the science?” and “Why don’t they care?” are questions which climate activists raise and often don’t have an answer to.
The reality is that most politicians’ main focus is on being re-elected which, under a system where profits come first, means trying to appease the big corporations while pretending to represent the popular will.
Big business and the rest of society have interests that are irreconcilable, but governments pretend that they’re not.
One recent example is the West Australian Labor government’s bill to remove greenhouse gas emissions from state environmental assessments, which was tabled on October 15.
For WA, the state which rakes in the most capital for mining, including fossil fuel projects, the gas companies are safely betting that whichever major party wins the next election will have its interests at heart.
According to Greenpeace, it means the WA government can waive through fossil fuel projects, despite significant climate concerns, on the grounds that the weaker federal “safeguard mechanism” will kick in if necessary.
Federal Labor’s net-zero by 2050 targets have been tailored to only count a subset of emissions. Greenhouse emissions from the burning of exported fossil fuels are excluded and any emissions can be offset.
This is why Woodside and Shell don’t have a problem with them: they allow for an expansion of their fossil-fuel operations, such as the former’s Browse and North West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) extension — one of the country’s most polluting fossil fuel projects currently undergoing state and federal approvals.
Woodside’s Browse project would involve drilling wells within about 3 kilometres of the reef and piping gas 900 kilometres for processing at the North West Shelf LNG processing plant at Karratha, on the Indigenous-heritage-rich Burrup Peninsula. Woodside expects it to deliver 11.4 million tonnes of LNG a year.
Scientists have said the proposed mega project at Browse Basin, about 300 kilometres off the Kimberley coast, could damage a coral reef ecosystem that is home to more than 1500 species, many unique to the area.
The federal government wants LNG, which it claims is “low emissions”, to be part of its “renewable energy superpower” plan. It claims Australia is helping develop new “lower emissions energy exports” to “support energy security and decarbonisation efforts” elsewhere.
Its green doublespeak is gobsmacking.
Australia is currently the fifth largest global LNG exporter, raking in $5.57 billion in August alone and estimated at $69 billion for the last financial year (more than double from 2021). Governments know that the window for gas companies to profit on fossil fuels is closing, as renewable power sources become a larger part of the energy mix.
This is why governments, at the behest of the fossil fuel giants, are working around the clock to weaken, not strengthen, environmental laws and criminalise environmental protests.
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How did we get here after decades of science, awareness-raising and pro-environment protests?
Capitalism, the system which survives on prioritising profits ahead of people and the planet’s needs, is driving the climate catastrophe. The major pro-capitalist parties will never go against corporate interests unless they are pressured by people’s movements too large to ignore.
We are still a way from building a movement with that weight in this country. But every initiative geared towards that goal counts.
This is why Green Left is a strong supporter of Rising Tide’s second annual peoples’ blockade of coal ships in Newcastle Harbour, the world’s largest coal port, in November.
The protest will not only raise awareness of the dire need for climate action, but will also reach out to workers wanting a just transition to benign industries and those who have not previously joined such protests — an important part of any successful mass action.
If you, like us, believe a safe climate is essential and we need to get organised to protect people and the planet, become a supporter of Green Left and help build the powerful climate movement we need.