What Happened to the ClimateSmart 2050 Review?

Allegedly, the Queensland Government is reviewing, updating and consolidating its current climate change policy. But since the release of the issues paper on 7th November last year, there have been no announcements, no policies and no position statements released by the Queensland Office of Climate Change. In fact, the so-called "news and events" page on their website hasn't been updated since the 12 August 2008.

It has now taken the Office of Climate Change almost 7 months to review a 36 page document which is mostly pictures! 

Queenslanders have a right to ask - with the coal industry continuing its expansion, what are the people in the Office of Climate Change doing? To coin a phrase, why are they fiddling while coal burns? 

The combustion of coal is undeniably creating human induced climate change. At Six Degrees, we have grave doubts that the Queensland government will commit to any action on coal in the revised Queensland Climate Change Strategy, which, after 7 months of inaction, we are still awaiting.

But the evidence is clear - coal causes climate change and action to phase out/reduce use of coal must be part of an effective climate change strategy.

The Office of Climate Change in the Queensland Government is revising its current Queensland climate change strategy ClimateSmart 2050 and Queensland’s ClimateSmart Adaptation 2007-12. The review of these existing climate change strategies is intended to create: 

an action plan for managing the impacts of climate change in light of the latest scientific assessments as well as national and international developments in climate change and climate change policy.

An Issues paper was drafted to encourage input to the revised strategy. But the issues paper is silent on the contribution that our export coal industry makes to climate change.

As the largest coal exporting state in the largest coal exporting country in the world, the omission of any mention of coal mining and export is as glaring as it is telling.

There are no proposed strategies to reduce reliance of coal as the primary source of electricity generation in Queensland beyond the establishment of an emissions trading scheme that penalises carbon emission. It is highly doubtful that the federal government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will effectively penalise coal as a primary energy source given the amount of free permits and unlimited use of international permits to enable polluters to meet their targets.

And given the current political context, there is a great deal of doubt about the viability of the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and when, if ever, it will be introduced to federal parliament.

If we ever see a revised ClimateSmart, you can be sure that there will be no mention of the coal export industry, easily Queensland's most significant contributor to climate change. Nor will there be any strategy or commitment to reducing our current use of coal for electricity generation. In fact, the revision will no doubt mirror the original ClimateSmart 2050 Strategy, which affirmed the Government's "strong commitment to the coal industry" in at least three seperate instances.

And our prediction: you can expect to see this line (from the original Climate Smart Strategy) sprinkled over and over throughout the document: 

The government is committed to supporting the robust economic growth and the sustainability of Queensland’s coal industry, one of the State’s major economic drivers.