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A bucket-wheel reclaimer alongside a pile of coal at the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia. Photo: Bloomberg

UN climate change adviser urges Australia to increase efforts to phase out coal

  • United Nations special adviser Selwin Hart said Canberra should ‘seize the moment’ and switch to renewables
  • Meanwhile, the southern winter just ended in New Zealand was the warmest ever recorded, and scientists claim climate change was responsible
Australia
Australia’s government should increase its efforts to phase out coal or else climate change will dramatically damage the country’s economy, Selwin Hart, the United Nations special adviser on climate change, said on Sunday.

Australia’s reliance on coal-fired power makes it one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita, but its conservative government has steadfastly backed fossil fuel industries, saying tougher action on emissions would cost jobs.

“We fully understand the role that coal and other fossil fuels have played in Australia’s economy, even if mining accounts for a small fraction – around 2 per cent – of overall jobs,” Hart said in a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra.

“But it’s essential to have a broader, more honest and rational conversation about what is in Australia’s interests.”

The UN has called for phasing out coal by 2030 in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, which include Australia.

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In July, energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 big economies failed to deliver a deal to phase out coal by 2025. But some experts said there were chances of progress at UN climate talks in Glasgow in November.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australia is on a path to net zero carbon emissions but has stopped short of committing to a timeline. He has said that Australia would update its 2030 emissions projections going into the Glasgow talks.

Most other developed countries have signed up to a target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Hart said that the Australian government should “seize the moment” and switch to renewables.

“If the world does not rapidly phase out coal, climate change will wreak havoc right across the Australian economy: from agriculture to tourism, and right across the services sector,” he said.

Ban on overseas coal projects could enhance China’s standing at COP26

Meanwhile, the southern winter just ended in New Zealand was the warmest ever recorded, and scientists claim climate change was responsible.

For the three months through August, the average temperature was 9.8 degrees Celsius, according to New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

That was 1.3 degrees above the long-term average and 0.2 degrees higher than the previous record posted last year. Scientists have been keeping records since 1909, but most of the warmest winters have been recent.

Nava Fedaeff, a meteorologist at the institute, said that on top of a background of global warming, this year there were more warm winds than usual from the north and warmer sea temperatures.

She said the underlying warming trend can be tracked through carbon dioxide concentration, which has increased in New Zealand from 320 parts per million 50 years ago to about 412 parts per million today.

Fedaeff said snowfall at lower elevations was well below average this winter as it was often replaced with rain, which could make for lower river levels later in the year because there will be less snowmelt. That could impact irrigation for farms, she said.

There were also more extreme weather events, Fedaeff said, including severe flooding in some places and dry spells in others.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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