Status: 08/10/2021 11:59 a.m.
China is the largest producer of greenhouse gases, while Australia has one of the highest CO2 emission rates per capita. But even after the alarming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, both states see no reason to tighten their climate policy.
One day after the alarming World Climate Report was published, China and Australia announced that they would stick to their previous climate policies.
According to the AFP news agency, the Chinese Foreign Ministry appealed to the international community “to have full confidence in the implementation of China’s climate protection measures”. The government did not announce any new climate protection targets.
More coal power plants for economic growth
The Chinese government wants to reduce CO2 emissions before 2030. China is currently the country with the most greenhouse gas emissions. China should be CO2 neutral by 2060. However, Beijing has recently pushed ahead with the opening of dozens of new coal-fired power plants in order to secure economic growth.
Further expansion is also planned for the next few years. Coal consumption is only to be gradually reduced from 2026 onwards. President Xi Jinping will “strictly control” the construction of coal-fired power plants, the ministry said.
Australia’s top export is coal
Australia also rejected calls for more ambitious CO2 emissions targets. The country is already doing its part against climate change, said Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison. His government continues to reject a commitment to greenhouse neutrality by 2050. He will “not sign a blank check on behalf of the Australians for goals without a plan”.
Australia is at the forefront of the global climate crisis. The country has one of the highest CO2 emission rates per capita, is one of the largest exporters of coal and natural gas and is at the same time the victim of several environmental disasters exacerbated by climate change. In the past few years, Australia has seen several severe droughts, the largest bushfires in history, flooding and coastal erosion.
Before the World Climate Conference in Glasgow in November 2020, Morrison rejected calls from allies such as the USA to set a formal target for reducing or offsetting CO2 emissions. Instead, the government announced that Australia would achieve greenhouse gas neutrality “as soon as possible”, preferably by 2050 – but did not make any commitments.
Many politicians in the conservative ruling coalition with close ties to the coal industry deny climate change or downplay its dangers.
Island states appeal to the international community
Meanwhile, an alliance of small island states made an urgent appeal to the international community to combat climate change. “We have to turn things around,” said Diann Black-Layne, climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) and Ambassador for Antigua and Barbuda. Rising sea levels are a direct threat to the existence of the island states. The alliance consists of 39 states, including Cuba, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and the Maldives, the deepest country in the world.
According to the IPCC report published on Monday, the earth is warming even faster than previously assumed and will be 1.5 degrees warmer by 2030 than in the pre-industrial era – ten years earlier than forecast in 2018. The desired goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees above the pre-industrial period as far as possible will, according to the model calculations, likely be exceeded in the next 20 years, even with the most stringent climate protection measures.
According to the researchers, global warming is “clearly” caused by humans. Some of the effects of global warming, such as the rise in sea levels and the melting of glaciers, are already “irreversible” according to the UN climate experts.