Thread by @David_Ritter

Late last night, news broke in London that @ScottMorrisonMP’s government has been pressuring the UK to drop commitments to the Paris climate goal from the UK-Aust trade deal.
Shameful and part of a pattern, because there's a history of active sabotage.
Here's a thread: #auspol

Australia’s obstruction in global climate diplomacy goes back a long, long way to the mid-90s:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

But let’s stick to the more recent history. In 2018 @ScottMorrisonMP newly installed as PM, set an unconstructive tone, dumping on the importance of international climate efforts in an interview with Alan Jones: pm.gov.au/media/intervie…

Morrison’s actual words: “No we’re not held to any of them at all Alan, nor are we bound to go and tip money into that big climate fund... So I’m not going to spend money on global climate conferences and all that sort of nonsense” pm.gov.au/media/intervie…

Morrison became Donald Trump’s climate inaction deputy, flaunting public disdain for international efforts, skipping a key global climate conference, and criticising the UN’s efforts to foster global climate action:
abc.net.au/news/2019-10-0…

The following year at the crucial UNFCCC COP25, Australia was accused of ‘cheating’ and ‘thwarting’ a global deal to meet climate targets: theguardian.com/environment/20…

This was all linked to Morrison’s gang trying to use a loophole to back out of emissions cuts - that would be nearly eight times greater than the combined emissions released by the rest of the Pacific:
theguardian.com/world/2019/aug…

Australia is now the only developed nation that has failed to lift its already dismal and wholly inadequate 2015 Paris climate targets:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

In December 2020, alongside Trump’s USA and Bolsonaro’s Brazil, Australia was named as one the top three nations most destructive of climate progress in the preceding five years by CAN International: climatenetwork.org/resource/2020-…

A key component of Morrison’s strategy of obstruction is to misrepresent what little Australia is actually doing and to hide the lack of a credible national emissions reduction plan:
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Despite persistent deceptive communications, Australia is not on track to achieve even its woefully insufficient partial reduction targets:
theguardian.com/environment/20…

To expand, the oft-repeated 20% emissions cut since 2005 stat quoted by the Morrison government is based on a big dodge. If you take out land clearing for farming, Australia’s emissions have actually grown by 7%.
australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/upl…

Contrary to ‘doing our bit’ Australia is currently on track to have the most carbon-intensive economy of any major developed nation by 2030:
igcc.org.au/new-us-2030-em…

This embarrassingly regressive and recalcitrant approach to global climate progress has seen Australia identified as a complete laggard, landing us dead last among 170 nations on climate action.
washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/…

Ending subsidies for coal, oil and gas is high on the global agenda. But Australian subsidies for fossil fuels increased 48% between 2015 and 2019; the highest percentage increase of all G20 nations.
assets.bbhub.io/professional/s…

On trade arrangements specifically, the Morrison Government is actively opposing European carbon tariffs:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

In the wake of the dire warnings of the most recent IPCC Report and commitment to greater action from leaders around the globe, the Morrison government responded with a resounding “yeah…. nah”: sbs.com.au/news/scott-mor…

Instead the Morrison team has been concentrating diplomatic lobbying on cynical efforts to deny the science and block the listing of the Great Barrier Reef as World Heritage ‘in danger’: ​​ reuters.com/business/envir…

That included revelations just last week that the Morrison government actually pressured the Australian Institute of Marine Science on a key scientific report, and selectively leaked to the Murdoch media. abc.net.au/news/2021-09-0…

The world has recognised the Australian government’s dismal failure to offer constructive discussion on climate change - in late 2020, Scott Morrison was excluded from a global climate meeting of over 70 world leaders:
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The Morrison government’s climate obstruction is so bad, that an unofficial international alliance of senior diplomats has attempted to intervene:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

To state the obvious, the world taking rapid action to meet the agreed Paris climate goals is in Australia's interests. Morrison should be making a positive diplomatic contribution, both in Australia's interests, and to be a responsible member of the global community. #auspol