According to Australian media, the United Nations will hold a climate summit on Saturday (December 12). Australian Prime Minister Morrison was not invited to address the meeting due to Australia’s widespread criticism on climate issues such as emission reduction.
Embarrassingly, Morrison promised in Congress last week that he would represent the Australian government to the United Nations to “correct misunderstandings”.
Morrison will not be one of the 70 world leaders invited to speak at the United Nations online climate summit this weekend, according to The Australian. The climate adviser to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres explained this, saying Australia did not have an invitation because it did not qualify for a speech at the summit.
“We will not comment on the participation of individual leaders,” Hart said. The summit’s speaking seats will only be given to those countries that are currently showing the greatest ambitions to reduce emissions.” That is, national leaders who announce zero emissions, provide funds to developing countries, or formulate “ambitous” plans and policies.
Since Morrison just boasted about Haikou last week, the speed of “slapping the face” made him obviously unable to control himself. Morrison tried to downplay this, claiming that he was not troubled by neglect. “There are many countries that have not spoken, and I mean New Zealand has not spoken,” he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
However, Australian media pointed out that the Australian government was very angry about this and passed most of the anger on to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson invited Morrison to address the summit a few weeks ago, but because Australia’s climate policy was too coping, Johnson dropped the invitation this week. This is even more embarrassing considering that Britain is Australia’s “five-eyed ally”. “He was like throwing us under the car,” one government official said Thursday.
The upcoming climate conference on Saturday will be video-conference, which coincides with the fifth anniversary of the historic Paris Agreement. The United Nations urges spokespersons to make an “ambitious” practical commitment to deal with global warming and propose concrete steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Morrison government recently released the latest national greenhouse gas emission projections, saying Australia could almost meet its 2030 emission reduction target without using the Kyoto Protocol credit line, according to the Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). This use of carry-over credits from old climate agreements has been widely criticized by the international community.
Australia’s current emission reduction target is to determine that emissions will be reduced by 2030 by 26 percent, and possibly by up to 28 percent, which is considered “lack of determination” by countries such as the United Kingdom. But the key is that such a lack of sincerity to reduce emissions will also fail. According to a report released by the Australian federal government last month, Australia can only achieve 16% emission reductions by 2030.
Last week, Pacific island leaders sent an open letter to Morrison, condemning Australia’s climate goals as “one of the weakest countries” and urging Australia to make a series of adjustments to its weak climate policies and targets.
In the face of the condemnation of the international community, Morrison directly moved out of Australia as a “fear”. He said that “the current emission reduction policy is determined by the needs and views of the Australian people and is in line with the science that supports the policy.”
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told SBS News earlier this week that being not invited to address the summit showed that Australia has become an “outstanding international outcast” of climate change action and that “Australia’s record in climate change action is so bad that he The policy … has won negative reactions from all countries around the world.”
Adam Bandt, leader of the Australian Green Party, said that the absence of an invitation to the summit showed that Australia had not taken enough strong action on climate change. “To get tickets to this summit, you have to commit to doing more to deal with the climate crisis,” he told ABC. “Only those who take climate change seriously can attend.”
More than 70 countries, including China, Japan, Fiji, Kiribati and Cambodia, have received invitations to speak. Most national leaders will speak by pre-recorded videos.
“We’re on the front lines of the climate crisis, and we shouldn’t focus on those countries that aren’t currently on the list, but really celebrate those that have stepped forward — many of them developing countries that are still facing the challenges of the pandemic,” Hart said.
