Former EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström warned that Australia has become “increasingly isolated” in terms of climate action in floods, fires, droughts and the latest assessment reports. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Shows that global warming “is caused by humans.”
Malmström said in a webinar hosted by the Progressive Think Tank Australia Institute on Wednesday that climate change is “we find ourselves in the most urgent global crisis-and we don’t have much time.”
“I think the recent developments last month-floods, fires, droughts, huge disasters and the IPPC report clearly emphasized that this is caused by humans-show that we all need to do more,” she said.
“The biggest economy and the biggest polluter need to do more,” she said. “China needs to do a lot.”
“China has promised a vague goal, but no one really knows how it will happen. The United States is getting there. Australia is a big economy, a big emitter, and you need to do more – we all need to do more. “
Malmström said that doing more means taking transformational actions, not “find 1% here or find 1% there”.
She said that when the world is striving to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, Australia will face continued international pressure to continue subsidizing fossil fuels. “There is no turning back. This is not like another election in Paris or Germany. We will change the course-no, it will not go back in time.”
She said that the best way for the government to make the necessary transformations is to align with companies looking for profit opportunities in the green economy. “This is not how I told the Australian government to do it, but [Australia] Becoming more and more isolated, we need to work together to accomplish this. “
Malmström is a center-right politician who has served in Brussels for nearly ten years, including Chief European Trade Negotiator, used to be Swedish candidate Lead the economic cooperation and development organization.
But Mathias Cormann, the former Australian Minister of Finance, got the role After a major diplomatic campaign From the Morrison government.In his leadership of the Paris-based organization, Koeman Talk about importance Pursue “a green recovery that is more dependent on renewable energy.”
In his speech on Wednesday, the former European Trade Commissioner refuted the Australian Minister’s argument that the EU’s proposed carbon border adjustment amounts to protectionism.
She said that Brussels has “an army of lawyers” working on the proposal to ensure that it complies with World Trade Organization regulations. The design of the mechanism “should not be discriminatory.”
“I heard the screams of protectionism, but the idea of taxing carbon in this way is getting less and less,” Malmstrom said.
She said she hopes other countries can adopt similar mechanisms. As the EU proposal and similar concepts being considered by the United States, “I think Canada and Japan are discussing, and China is revising the emissions trading system.”
The proposed carbon border adjustment mechanism will require EU companies that import goods to pay a price that is linked to the price that would have been paid if these goods were produced under the EU’s own emissions trading scheme.
The goal is to prevent “carbon leakage”-or the transfer of emission-intensive industries to countries with less ambitious climate policies. The policy also aims to encourage global producers to reduce emissions and encourage countries to adopt more environmentally friendly policies.
Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan described the mechanism as “a new form of protectionism that will undermine global free trade and affect Australian exporters and employment opportunities.”
Malmström stated that the best policy to deal with the threat of global heating would be a global carbon tax, not a regulatory boundary adjustment mechanism. “It will be the best and most effective, but we have not achieved this yet. I can imagine that there will be many difficulties in achieving this goal.”
When asked if she was optimistic about building global ambitions before Cop26 in Glasgow in November, she said “Overall, I am very worried.”
She said: “If we look outside and see where we are, we have not achieved the goals we promised on a global scale. I hope the events that happened last month are an important wake-up call for people.”
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“The important thing is not to be too gloomy. We need to make hard decisions, we need to make hard decisions… But you should also emphasize the possibilities.”
Malmström stated that companies are looking for opportunities, rather than treating climate action as a cost. She said that the upcoming transition will create many jobs. “I believe we can still do this, but we need international cooperation, we need leadership, and we need the courage to make difficult decisions for the future of this planet and our children.”
She said that she still hopes that Cop26 can push things forward “a little bit”, “we can reach an international consensus on the next step-this is what I hope.”
