SYDNEY, April 11, 2019 – With Australia reeling from heatwaves, drought, mass fish kills, catastrophic floods and fires, the 2019 federal election will be a referendum on years of failure to act on climate change.With polling consistently indicating climate change is among voters’ top concerns [1], Australians will go to the ballot box on May 18 to decide which party is best equipped to confront the climate crisis and lead the country into a clean energy future.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO David Ritter said this election must be the end of climate denialism in Australian politics.
“The world has a little over a decade to take unprecedented action to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees. That is the standard to which every Australian government must be held,” Mr Ritter said.
“Heatwaves, fish kills, and record-breaking floods and fires demonstrate beyond any doubt that our climate is in crisis. The Coalition’s abysmal decision to approve Adani’s water licence days before calling an election is another demonstration that they are in thrall to climate denialists and coal lobbyists. It is imperative, therefore, that the Labor Party now lift its ambition to match the scale of the threat.”
“Whoever wins the election must take urgent action to accelerate the transition to clean energy, beginning with a plan to replace Australia’s ageing and increasingly unreliable coal-fired power stations.”
Only 13 percent of Australians believe the the government is doing a good job of tackling climate change. [2]
“Australians deserve a federal government that recognises the damage being done to our climate by our addiction to burning coal, and that is capable of doing something decisive about it,” Mr Ritter said.
“Australians want a cleaner, healthier and safer country powered by renewable energy.
“Whichever party wins the election should move quickly to rule out the proposed Adani mine, and to cancel plans for risky deepwater oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight.”
Notes
For interviews
Greenpeace Australia Pacific communications campaigner, Martin Zavan
0424 295 422 / [email protected]
