Bigger than Australia

195 countries have arrived in Doha, Qatar for the United Nations climate change conference (COP18) which commenced yesterday. They have gathered in the hopes of finding a solution to the cataclysmic climate change projected in the World Bank’s latest report. A 4C degree warmer world, as predicted, far exceeds the 1.5-2 degree temperature increase that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has deemed safe.

Australia is inflicted with some sort of self-perception dismorphia. When amongst our global peers; we consistently fear that we are being hard done by, that we are working harder than our neighbours and that we are perpetually more vulnerable. The fear of doing more than other countries could be heard acutely earlier this year during the debates around the carbon price.

“We only contribute 1.5 percent of global emissions”, “We should only act when big polluters like China act” and “Our emissions mean nothing compared to the rest of the world” are all too common refrains.

However, the reality of Australia’s historic contribution to climate change and our current potential to contribute to positive change is a very different story.

Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter. When you take into account all the coal that we ship beyond our borders to be burnt elsewhere – our global emissions suddenly sky rocket. We leap from a seemingly modest 1.5 percent of global emissions to almost five percent.

The UN climate talks are generally a hot pot of competing national interests, juggling trade and economic expectations and varying degrees of genuine ambition to deal with the imminent climate change crisis. Australia tends to participate in good faith but with a decided lack of leadership.

This year is no different.

There has been buzzing in the media lately about Australia (conditionally) signing onto the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, with a five percent reduction on 2000 base levels by 2020. The ambition displayed here is pretty deplorable considering that Australia is the sunniest and one of the windiest countries in the world. We could be doing far, far more to reduce our emissions.

Kyoto is the only global legally binding treaty to reduce emissions. Whilst alone it falls well short of even making a dent in the sort of emission reductions needed to avoid runaway climate change; it is a pivotal intermediate step to get developed countries committing to reduction targets and moving towards a binding treaty in 2015.

Australia has a huge capacity to inspire progress in Doha. The notable absence of our Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, from the conference is disappointing and the announcement of Australia’s lack of Kyoto ambition sets a somewhat somber tone for the start of COP18.

We have come a long way garnering widespread, global support for action on climate change. However, time is of the essence and it is time for countries like Australia with the resources for a low carbon economy at their fingertips to show leadership, ambition and humanity when it comes to tackling climate change.

By Sophie Trevitt, photo by Laura Owsianka.