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It's About Emissions

It’s about Emissions

Unless the world urgently and drastically cuts its Carbon emissions, we are in for a pretty catastrophic time.

A lot of the Carbon emissions are produced by the burning, extraction and transport of fossil fuels, which are used for electricity production, transport and lots of other things.

We need to address all our main sources of emissions as well as ramping up our nature-based solutions in order to remove much more Carbon from the atmosphere.

You will see I have written a poem about Scope 3 emissions.

What are Scope 3 emissions?

Scope 3 emissions are emissions that are produced as a consequence of the actions of a person or company but that they do not have direct control of. One example is a mining company that digs up and sells coal to another company. If the coal is transported and burnt by the second company, these emissions are considered Scope 3 from the coal mining. If the coal had never been dug up or sold, then these emissions would not have occurred. 

In terms of impact on the climate, it doesn’t matter at all where the emissions are produced, for example whether Australian coal is burnt here or overseas. Australia is the second largest exporter of coal and is among the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas.  By exporting these fossil fuels, we are delivering well above our weight in greenhouse gases to this climate-stressed world. Australia and fossil fuel companies need to take responsibility for Scope 3 emissions. 

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Remember when school kids around Australia and the world showed strong leadership and organised School Climate strikes in 2019, 2020 and now again in 2022? Instead of listening and acting, the Coalition politicians were telling the kids they shouldn’t be skipping school. Apart from anything else, some of their classrooms were already getting far too hot for good health and learning, due to climate change.

In July 2021, many of us were very disappointed to learn that the Federal Environment Minister had appealed against a Federal Court decision that she has a duty of care to protect children from future personal injury caused by climate change. In March 2022, we find that this appeal has been upheld in the Federal Court, though it may not be the end of the matter.

If not a legal responsibility, don’t our elected representatives have a moral responsibility for duty of care to protect us and our children from catastrophic future harm?

And if they don’t currently have a legal responsibility, shouldn’t the Federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act be amended to take into account climate impacts on Australians? Instead, the Coalition were bent on reducing the powers of this Act to protect us from environmental and climate damage.

June 2022 Update

We may have a new Federal Government (May 2022) promising more action on climate change, and Angus Taylor is no longer even pretending to be the Minister for Emissions Reduction, but we need still much stronger and urgent action on reducing all Green House Gas emissions, including the large quantity of emissions that come from our coal and gas overseas (Scope 3 emissions) if we are to “dodge the climate change bullet”.

Here are some poems about emissions.

Australian Sugar Mill

Sins of Emission, Commission and Omission

Sins of Emission, Commission and Omission – the Coalition’s prayer to the electorate Please forgive my Government for ...
Scope 3 Emissions

Scope 3 Emissions

Scope 3 Emissions The fossil fuel boss says: “Scope 3? It’s nothing to do with me, Not my ...
Coal Truck

We don’t care

We don't care The Federal Environment Minister seems to say: I don’t take responsibility For emissions Scopes 1, ...