Press release – 14 March, 2016Sydney, 15 March 2016 – Responding to Labor leader Bill Shorten’s National Press Club address, Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s Climate and Energy campaigner, Nikola Casule said:“It is encouraging to see Bill Shorten placing the fight against climate change at the centre of Labor’s election campaign. But reducing Australia’s domestic emissions can only ever be one part of a comprehensive response to the global climate crisis. Australia is a major coal exporter, and our coal is accelerating climate change when it is burnt overseas.
“The science is clear: over 90% of Australia’s coal
must stay in the ground
to prevent the worst impacts of global warming. Whoever wins the 2016 election must announce a comprehensive policy for how this will take place.
“We’ve just recorded the hottest February on record, and there is now widespread bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef from rising ocean temperatures due to climate change and El Nino.
“The warning signs are all there that we are facing a climate crisis, yet Australia continues to allow hundreds millions of tonnes coal to be shipped out of the country and burned every year.”
Mr Shorten recommitted that a Labor government would introduce a 50% renewable energy target by 2030, reduce net emissions to zero by 2050 and end the direct action climate change policy.
“Labor’s goal of reducing net emissions to zero by 2050 is encouraging, but more policy detail is needed about how to make it a reality to make it truly credible."