Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP has said figures showing an 18% drop in emissions as a result of the coronavirus are doomed to be short-lived under the Liberals' gas led recovery, urging the government to 'lock in' the drop by phasing out coal & gas and massively funding renewables.

"It's pathetic that the Liberals needed an economy-wrecking pandemic to see a drop in emissions," Adam Bandt MP said.

"If Tony Abbott hadn't torn up the Greens-secured carbon price in 2014, we'd have this kind of drop permanently  without having to shut down the economy.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt will celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the power sharing Parliament and the agreement between Labor and the Greens during the Gillard minority government during an address to the Greens National Conference this weekend.

The Greens have responded to Labor’s official endorsement (through its Shadow Resources Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon) of the Liberals’ plan to subsidise gas, saying the establishment parties were robbing the public purse to make the climate emergency worse.

"Labor shouldn't be warming to a Liberal plan that will dangerously heat our planet," Mr Bandt said.

“By backing the Liberals’ gas-led recovery, Labor is giving up on the Paris Agreement.

Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP said reporting of a National COVID Commission presentation on natural gas showed a growing disconnect between our manufacturing sector and gas barons.

"Today's reports confirm that the COVID Commission is entirely captive to the interests of the fossil fuel lobby and that is hurting our manufacturing sector's chance of recovering," Mr Bandt said.

"As we recover from this pandemic, public funds should be invested in public housing and job-creating projects, not handed over to big polluting corporations.

Australian Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, says statements today from Labor’s Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources, Joel Fitzgibbon, put the Labor party in lockstep with the Liberals on climate action, as he called on the Opposition to instead join the Greens in demanding stronger 2030 targets from the government.

“If we don't take stronger climate action by 2030 we're screwed, so when a shadow minister lines Labor up with the Liberals on climate, it is a recipe for the coal-fuelled collapse of civilisation,” Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, said.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has released new analysis showing that because pollution has increased so much since the Liberals repealed the carbon price, Australia’s emissions reduction targets would now need to be at least a 48% cut on 2005 levels by 2030 to be consistent with the Paris Agreement aim of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees. So much of the carbon budget has been spent that future governments will need to tighten their carbon belts even further, not relax targets as has been mooted.

In Eden-Monaro, where in 2019 Greens’ preferences were crucial in determining the final result, the Greens have made a decision about who will appear in the important ‘number 2’ spot on their How to Vote cards when voting starts tomorrow. Eden-Monaro is currently held by a margin of less than one percent. 

The Greens’ candidate, Cathy Griff, is campaigning on the climate crisis and a green-led economic recovery package, and this by-election is a golden opportunity to send a message.

Responding to today’s alarming economic figures, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said Scott Morrison has no plan to get the country out of recession and that a bold investment plan was needed, not granite benchtop grants.

“Australia is in recession and Scott Morrison has no plan to get us out of it,” said Mr Bandt.

“Depression-era job queues demand a Depression-era response, which means massive public investment in nation-building, planet-saving projects, not granite benchtop grants.”

Today’s pathetic emissions reduction figures confirm the government is set to waste another year in reducing carbon pollution instead of embracing a renewable-powered hydrogen revolution, Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP, said today.

“Angus Taylor must be looking at the graph upside down. Today’s emissions data confirms we will not meet the Paris Agreement goals and that global warming will exceed dangerous thresholds,” Mr Bandt said.

With Scott Morrison gunning to use the findings of the King Review to back greenwashing attempts by the fossil fuel industry, the Greens say they will fight the government's moves to redirect public funds to coal and gas. Led by gas industry giants and fossil fuel advocates, the King Review suggests that efforts should be spent cleaning up emissions, not trying to prevent them in the first instance. There are three major changes proposed: