Eighteen years since warning of climate refugee crisis, Albanese has the power to do something, but not the will
By the end of the century, depending on the intensity of global warming, Kiribati's sea level could rise by as much as a metre. Photo: Getty
Eighteen years ago today Anthony Albanese issued a press release about the urgent need to not just act on climate change, but prepare for the humanitarian crisis of climate refugees fleeing low-lying Pacific island nations.
Specifically his press release, having criticised the Howard government for being slow to act, called for “the establishment of an international coalition led by Australia to accept climate change refugees from Pacific countries”.
Of course, back in 2006 the then shadow environment minister had no power to act on his concerns, but 18 years later the only thing holding the Prime Minister back is his own (lack of) resolve.
Albanese’s October 9, 2006 press release also declared that: “It’s in Australia’s national interest that we lead on climate change, not wait decades to act”.
It also made reference to a discussion paper our current PM had authored, the emotionally titled ‘Our drowning neighbours’.
But 18 years later, the Albanese government, like the Howard government of 2006, is still ignoring the scientific consensus about the urgent need to reduce emissions, still subsidising and opening new gas and coal mines and still hasn’t created a legal framework for climate refugees.
Indeed, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus is yet to even respond to the 2022 landmark decision of a United Nations committee that found Australia’s former Coalition government violated the human rights of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to adequately respond to the climate crisis.
Since 2006, Australia’s actual domestic greenhouse emissions, ignoring changes in tree growth, have fallen by only 2.7 per cent.
And of course, it’s not just our domestic emissions that cause the sea level rise that the Prime Minister was once so worried about.
Over the past 18 years Australia has invested heavily in becoming the world’s third largest fossil fuel exporter. Indeed, just last month Tanya Plibersek approved three enormous new coal export projects that between them will lead to a further 1.5 billion tonnes of CO2 being pumped into our rapidly warming atmosphere.
And while the government argues that “fossil fuel exports don’t count”, the science makes clear that no matter where in the world that coal is burned, its devastating impacts on Australia and the Pacific will be the same.
Bizarrely, despite expressing concern that climate refugees may be a threat to peace and stability in our region back in 2006, the current Albanese government often suggests that approving new gas and coal projects is important for preserving peace and stability in our region.
This despite the fact that the UN Secretary General, the International Energy Agency and the IPCC have all said that building new fossil fuel projects is inconsistent with keeping climate change below 1.5 degrees.
While it’s hard to believe that the federal government really thinks building new fossil fuel projects is good for regional security, one way it might be able to persuade the public of this argument would be to release a declassified version of the Climate and Security risk assessment that the Office of National Assessments handed them back in 2022.
But for reasons best known to itself, to date it has been determined to keep it secret.
A child born on the day that our Prime Minister called on the Howard government to show climate leadership will get a vote at the next election, and there is no doubt that climate change ranks highly among the biggest concerns facing young voters.
But of course, a child born in Kiribati or Tuvalu won’t have a say on whether Australia should continue to build new gas and coal mines or whether we should invest more in supporting the development of Pacific nations.
Australian governments, state and federal, Labor and Liberal, have talked a big game on climate action for decades, but they are yet to take the need to genuinely transition away from fossil fuels seriously, nor to recognise the benefits of genuinely engaging with Pacific nations.
Last year Australia spent more than $14 billion on fossil fuel subsidies, far more than it spent on aid to the Pacific.
If Australia was as generous to the Pacific as we are to the foreign-owned fossil fuel companies, the PM could easily address the concerns he was raising 18 years ago.
Dr Richard Denniss is executive director of independent public-policy think-tank, the Australia Institute