Press release – 9 November, 2016Sydney, 10 November 2015 – Responding to Australia’s ratification of the Paris climate agreement, Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s climate and energy campaigner Shani Tager said:“While ratifying the Paris climate agreement is an important step in securing a healthy future for our planet,  Australia now has to make a huge climate U-turn and introduce ambitious climate policies to live up to the promise it has made to the rest of the world.
“There’s no way Australia can continue to approve new fossil fuel projects and keep the commitments it has just made.
“As the world’s largest exporter of coal, the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel, Australia’s first step to meeting this promise must be a ban on new coal mines.”
The potential carbon emissions from the world’s existing operational fossil fuel reserves would already exceed the Paris climate agreement upper target of a 2C temperature increase limit, making any new fossil fuel projects entirely incompatible with global climate targets. [1]
On the impact of the election of Donald Trump in the United States on the climate agreement, Ms Tager said:
“This ratification demonstrates that global progress in protecting our planet from the dangers of a hotter climate is not dependent upon a single person or a single nation.
“However it will be impossible to take the Australian government’s commitment seriously while it still politically and financially supports fossil fuel industries that endanger the planet.
“If Malcolm Turnbull can rise to the challenge, this will be the first step towards a future with clean air and water, a safe climate and a healthy Great Barrier Reef for all Australians.”