Climate change

Labor and fossil fuel projects in Australia

“No new fossil fuel projects” is currently the most unifying demand of the climate movement in Australia. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said, there can be no new coal, oil and gas projects if there is to be any chance at limiting warming to 1.5°C. Around two thirds of Australia’s contributions to global GHG emissions are from burning of exported fossil fuels in other countries, and the majority of extraction in Australia is for export. Only governments have across-the-board powers to stop new coal and gas projects. Companies and corporate investors can decide to halt or withhold...

"Put fossil fuel industry under public ownership and run it in reverse"

Holly Jean Buck has emerged in recent years as one of the most incisive voices on the left on climate change, notably with After Geoengineering (2019), along with a range of academic and popular articles. Her recent book, Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero Is Not Enough (2021) is another valuable contribution, confronting realities, facing difficult questions and drawing out serious, grounded political conclusions that take the struggle forward. Fossil fuel realities The first merit of the book is to underline the power of the fossil fuel industry and the scale of what has to be ended. Fossil...

Labour, democracy, and Rosebank

Activists from Workers' Liberty and supporters of Solidarity will be at Labour Party conference and women's conference, 7-11 October in Liverpool. We'll be there to help the efforts of Free Our Unions, the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, India Labour Solidarity, and other campaigns; to sell literature, seek discussions and contacts. There will be demonstrations for the NHS and for abortion rights on Saturday, for free education on Sunday. And agitation for a block on new North Sea oil and gas fields, following the Tories' decision to "max out" licences in...

Sunak: profit before environment

Apart from the personal interest he and other leading Tories have in fossil capital, Rishi Sunak calculates that there are votes to be won by championing reckless individual advantage in the face of climate breakdown. That explains his announcements on net-zero policies and the Rosebank oil field. The Tories’ original net-zero plans were not ever sufficient for meeting Paris climate targets. Further, the Paris climate targets in themselves are not sufficient to avoid 2°C+ global heating: that requires creating a global carbon drawdown industry in addition to halting emissions. The government’s...

Australia: fossil-fuel export profits or climate action?

The political context for climate action in Australia appeared to change with the election of a Labor Government in 2022. Labor campaigned on climate change as an economic opportunity, for exports and jobs in renewable energy. The ALP leaders framed climate action as new industries, new development and new employment. This approach is guided by Ross Garnaut (see his book Superpower: Australia’s low carbon opportunity ), who was a principal economic adviser to the Hawke Government. The approach made the party more electable. But the combination with its commitments to market stability, and...

Stop profit drive frying the planet

In its pursuit of profit, capitalism is frying and boiling our planet. The uncontrolled wildfires burning through July and August — from Hawaii to Greece, from western Canada to Tenerife — not only symbolise runaway climate change, but give a warning of worse to come. The eight hottest years on record are the last eight. 2023 is set to beat them. We haven’t yet reached the key threshold of 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures. As we race towards and most likely past it, the events of this summer will start to look minor. Events like the new uncontrolled wildfires are only part of the...

Heatwave shows urgency of green policies

Death Valley, California 53.3C; Sanbao, Xinjiang 52.2C; Mexicali, Mexico 50.2C; Tunis 50C; Sicily 47.3C. The July heatwave has been as unrelenting as it has been extensive. And now (31 July) Rishi Sunak has announced that the government intends to give over 100 new licences for oil and gas development in the North Sea, with all their carbon-emission implications. While the UK has experienced a month of damp weather, large parts of the world have suffered temperatures near the limits of human survivability. This is the world at 1.2C warming. Emissions are still rising, and temperatures will...

Profit interests block climate action

The government’s own Climate Change Commission has found the UK is missing its climate targets on every front. The home insulation scheme needs to expand tenfold. Road traffic emissions have increased for lack of investment in public transport. There is no plan for heavy industry like steel. Lack of regulation means new homes will have to be retrofitted to make them climate resilient. Wind turbine and photovoltaic installation is far too slow. There is no plan for green hydrogen. There are not enough trees being planted. The list goes on. In fact, it’s worse than the CCC finds. The Tories are...

Take climate change and science seriously

Earlier this month, Sunak and other prominent Tories declared that Starmer and Labour were taking climate change too seriously. Sunak frothed that “eco-zealots at Just Stop Oil are writing Keir Starmer's energy policy" — alongside other dishonest smears from other champions of climate catastrophe. Paul Vernadsky’s recent letter seems to take a similar tactic: “I am alarmed that Solidarity ’s ecological politics is collapsing into a callow regurgitation of Extinction Rebellion and its offshoots.” He doesn’t specify what are the similarities or specific limitations of XR, Paul simply uses XR as...

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