Australia is a Colossal Fossil
Australia has received the dubious honour of being awarded the international ‘Climate Fossil Award’ for failing to honour our climate commitments under the Paris Accord.
The Fossil of the Day Award is an initiative of the Climate Action Network International, who base the nominations on "particularly negative, obstructive, or generally unhelpful behavior of government delegations in relation to other Parties and progress on climate talks, the media, and the wider public".
Australia was nominated for the Paris Anniversary Fossil Awards in four categories:
- Not honouring the commitment under the Paris Accord to keep global temperatures below 1.5° Celsius
- Not providing Climate Finance to climate vulnerable countries
- Not protecting its people from climate impacts
- Not listening to its citizens and shrinking the civic space for protest.
As global leaders head to the virtual United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, Australia's lack of action on global warming has landed us the top spot in the first category.
Our Federal Government’s failure to set a net zero emissions target by 2050, despite widespread support for this commitment across states, territories and all major sectors of the economy, is setting Australia up to be on the wrong side of history.
The latest edition of the Climate Change Performance index has ranked Australia 54th out of 57 countries and the EU for progress on reducing climate change.
It's time for Australia to stop being such a colossal fossil.