Christopher Niesche: Australia risks trade sanctions over climate change failings
Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. Australia is still going full steam ahead on mining. Photo / Supplied OPINION: Australia will cement its place as a climate pariah when nations from around the world meet at the next round of global climate talks begin in Glasgow next month. While other nations make binding commitments to cut emissions and introduce a carbon price, we'll see more of the same from Scott Morrison and his government essentially "we'll do our best, but we're not making any promises." Australia's intransigence on climate action risks not only worsening global warming instead of alleviating it, but also puts its economy at risk. Nations are likely to start putting climate action into free trade deals, with the risk that Australia's export sectors lose out. The world is losing patience with Australia. "Of all the developed countries, Australia has the poorest standing on climate," Dutch Member of the European Parliament Bas Eickhout said recently. "It's clear that Australia will just be absent, basically, from the talks." Dr Jonathan Pershing, the deputy to US presidential climate envoy John Kerry, said last month Australia's targets were "not sufficient" and the country should be considering a 50 per cent cut in emissions by 2030. However, the Morrison government has maintained that its 26-28 per cent 2030 emissions reduction target is adequate and has yet to commit to a net zero emissions target by 2050. Instead, we're going full steam ahead (perhaps that should be full smog ahead) with coal mine development. Earlier this month, Selwin Hart, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action, said Australia and other nations needed to shut down its coalmining industry in the next decade if the world is to limit global warming. The government's response was typical. "The future of this crucial industry will be decided by the Australian government, not a foreign body that wants to shut it down, costing thousands of jobs and billions of export dollars for our economy," resources minister Keith Pitt said. Pitt's comments were directed mainly at coal miners in central Queensland, whose votes could mean the difference between winning and losing the next federal election, but they would not have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world. There are already signs that nations will be inserting climate clauses into trade agreements. We recently learned that senior British ministers had dropped their request to include a reference to meeting the Paris goal of limiting global temperature rise to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible in a free-trade deal with Australia. Morrison said trade deals should be separate from climate agreements. "In trade agreements, I deal with trade issues. In climate agreements I deal with climate issues," he told reporters. But the choice won't be Morrison's. When it comes to making trade agreements, other nations which are rolling out costly and painful measures to substantially cut emissions won't allow Australia and other nations a free ride. Australia risks tariffs and trade sanctions as other nations seek to even up the playing field between those nations making sacrifices for the climate and those which aren't. The Morrison government's position on climate could cost us dearly. Not only do we risk a trade decline, it's likely that we'll be left behind as the rest of the world addresses the reality of global warming and decarbonises their economies. Three years ago in these pages I noted that Australian do-it-yourself graphic design company Canva had become a unicorn a privately-owned start-up with a US$1 billion valuation. Impressive at the time, the achievement fades in comparison to Canva's latest achievement. It has just raised another US$200 million in a funding round that puts its valuation at US$40 billion, or A$55 billion in the local currency. It's a story that reads like a Hollywood script. Founded by Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht in Perkins' mother's sitting room in 2012, the business soon caught the eye of early-stage investors and emerged as one of the world's most popular and fastest-growing software tools. Canva which allows its users to easily and cheaply do their own graphic design is now larger than Australian corporate giants Telstra, Rio Tinto and Coles. To top it all off, the two photogenic founders married last year and have promised to give away the bulk of their A$16.4 billion stake in the company to help alleviate global poverty. Blackbird Ventures partner Rick was among the first investors to see promise in Canva, buying into the A$1.6m raise in March 2013. Trying to explain the company's success this week, Baker said he put it down to a strong initial vision that had been brilliantly executed. Many of the slides in the current fundraising presentation are almost the same as those he first saw 10 years ago. Tech founders often talk about pivoting trying something out and pivoting to a new strategy, market, product and so on if Plan A doesn't work. But there's a lot to be said for having a vision and following it through. Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read. NZ Aerospace Summit in Christchurch hit by protest - which promises escalation tomorrow.