Climate change has not featured as a major issue so far in the federal election campaign.
Both
major parties have targets for emissions reductions which both claim can be
achieved. The Coalition target is a
26-28% reduction relative to 2005 levels by 2030 and Labor’s is a 45% cut over
the same time frame.
Despite
the politicians’confident claims, the effectiveness of their policies in
meeting their targets is debatable.The
Climate Change Authority saw a need for much stronger action, recommending 40-60%
reductions relative to 2000 levels by 2030.
Political
policy is obviously developed with community attitudes in mind. Just how much community support is there for
strong action on climate change?
Sydney
University of Technology lecturer Deborah Cotton, who conducted a survey of
community attitudes to climate policy in 2011, recently conducted another
survey to see whether attitudes had changed.
Cotton
says results suggest that concern
about the climate is more widespread now than it was five years ago. Now 75% of people believe it is an important
global issue and 74% believe it was an important issue for Australia.
She says,
“As to what we should do about it, we found that 57% of people want Australia
to act on climate change irrespective of whether other countries do or not.
This is significantly more than in 2011, when 50% of people were in this
category.”
Many of
those concerned about the need for urgent and much more effective climate
action would like to see the profile of this issue raised in what is left of
this long and tedious election campaign.
Recent
events which have already raised the profile of climate change include the
coral bleaching and along the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere and the recent
ferocious east coast low storm.
Effective
and urgent climate action is not something we can put off. It is vital for future generations of humans
and other species. It is also vital for
our economic future that we implement strong measures now. Not doing so would
lay an enormous economic as well as environmental burden on our children and
grandchildren.
- Leonie Blain
