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The Government’s Lacklustre Climate Budget Is Under Fire, Just Like The Planet One Day

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said we're on track to "meet and beat" our 2030 targets, while investing millions into fossil fuels in the 2021-22 budget.

by Millie Roberts  12 May 2021

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The UN predicted that we only have nine years left before shit hits the fan with the climate crisis. Yet in last night’s federal budget announcement, the lack of money allocated to fight climate change, and prevent further damage to the planet, was mediocre at best.

Five climate addresses amounting to $480 million were made on Tuesday, only scratching the surface of our impending environmental disaster. Most of them sound good on paper but simultaneously read like a year 9 geography project.

The Morrison government allocated $29.3 million towards environmental law reforms, and $9.1 million to assess our natural resources that might lead them to consider more renewable energy options. Maybe.

One of the nicer highlights was a tangential recognition of worsening natural disasters to come with $209.7 million to start up the ‘Australian Climate Service’.

“Australian Climate Service will bring together our best scientists to help us better anticipate, manage and adapt to climate impacts now and for the generations to come,” said Environment Minister Sussan Ley last Wednesday.

On a similar vein as the 2020-21 budget, $11 million will go towards recycling and waste management plans, as well as a $100 million recommitment to ocean ecosystems.

Yet the government’s gestures are undercut by continued investment in fossil fuels and offering nothing substantial on renewables.

In this year’s budget, $58.6 million of new funding was given to natural gas projects and supply, and the government will continue to back oil refineries with an unspecified amount of dosh.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s standout phrase last night, ‘meet and beat’, was whipped out in relation to proposed emissions reduction policies: a vague $1.6 billion on “strong and practical action” to deal with climate change, as well as $1.2 billion over a decade towards low emission technologies.

The latter include fossil fuel-related hydrogen hubs and divisive carbon capture and storage methods, as well as trying to reduce livestock methane farts.

Frydenberg emphasised his “practical, technology-focused approach” specifically over taxes, a jab at the Gillard government’s 2012 implementation of fixed carbon pricing.

The Australian Institute found that fossil fuel subsidies have cost the country over $10 billion over the last financial year, equating to $19,686 a minute, the ABC wrote last month.

As reported in Crikey today, the continued support of fossil fuel companies relates to the hundreds of thousands of dollars the federal government receives in donations from them each year.

On Monday, the Australian Conservation Foundation released an analysis of federal spending since the Coalition came into power nearly a decade ago.

They found that for every $100 spent by the government, only 53 cents was spent on “programs, grants, policy analysis, research, and staff to address the environmental and climate crisis”, 37 cents on the environment, and a dismal 16 cents on climate.

The ACF’s predictions show a further decline in dedicated climate action spending in 2022-23 and 2023-24 as well.

This is all despite the Morrison government stating yesterday that they’re on track to meet the 2030 Paris target — a reduction of emissions to be ideally 28% below the levels we had in 2005.

“Australia is on the pathway to net zero and our goal is to get there as soon as we possibly can,” Frydenberg said in the House of Representatives last night. “Preferably by 2050.”

Experts said that we’d need to cut emissions by 50% minimum if we’re ever going to get to the first goal on time, the Guardian reported in January. Good luck to us!