Young people will be guaranteed a job, secure income, and free education under a new Greens recovery plan to restart the economy and build ‘a better normal’ after the coronavirus economic shock.

The vision for a debt-financed recovery reaffirms the government’s role in responding to the crisis, and rejects the austerity approaches offered by the Liberal and Labor parties, charting a course for a government-led recovery that extends Australia’s world-class social services, instead of slashing funding for education, healthcare, and the environment.

The Australian Greens have thrown their support behind the push from big business to tackle the climate crisis and the economic recovery from the coronavirus together. 

The calls, led by the Australian Industry Group, come as a report released Tuesday shows that as much as one-third of the world’s population will be exposed to heat likened to the Sahara Desert within fifty years unless we urgently cut pollution. 

The climate crisis is heating Australia faster than other nations and answers to Greens questions at Senate Estimates today confirm Australia will warm by ‘closer to 4 degrees’, not the 2 degrees agreed to in the Paris Agreement on climate change, with Scott Morrison marching us on a path towards death.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt will introduce a Bill into the House of Representatives this morning, seconded by the Member for Waringah Zali Steggall OAM, to formally declare a climate emergency, require every government department to be guided by the declaration and mandate the establishment of a ‘war cabinet’ to tackle the crisis. 

Mr Bandt announced the Bill to a crowd over 2000 when opening the recent National Climate Emergency Summit.

Comment by Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP: 

Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has slammed Angus Taylor’s dim-witted plan to ditch support for solar and wind in favour of unproven and ineffective Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology.

In a speech today, the Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister will signal a shift away from renewables towards Carbon Capture and Storage and brown hydrogen.

“Angus Taylor’s one KPI is in his job description and he can’t even meet it,” said Mr Bandt.

Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP, has commended Australia’s leading climate scientists for their courage in warning that both Liberal and Labor’s climate policies are dangerously inadequate.
 
Three of Australia’s leading specialists on climate change – Professor Will Steffen, Professor Lesley Hughes, and Dr Pep Cannadell - have today warned that Australia needs to hit net-zero carbon emissions before 2050, including significant reductions in the next ten years, if we’re to keep global warming well below 2 degrees and honour the Paris Agreement.
 

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has introduced a Bill into the House of Representatives - Liability for Climate Change Damage (Make the Polluters Pay) Bill 2020 - which will make fossil fuel companies liable for damage from the climate crisis, granting climate victims such as recent bushfire survivors or tourism businesses affected by fires or reef bleaching the right to sue thermal coal, oil and gas companies for damages. Governments would also have the right to bring actions in their own right or on behalf of affected persons.

Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt has warned that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 while opening new coal mines will not save us from the climate emergency, and called on Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison to commit to a strong 2030 target and a plan to phase out coal.
 
Today, Labor Leader Anthony Albanese committed the party to a target of net zero emissions by 2050, however he refused to indicate a 2030 target or commit to concrete steps to cut pollution and tackle the climate crisis.

Adam Bandt MP said:

Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt has slammed Anthony Albanese’s move to adopt a net zero by 2050 pollution target, saying it will blow the 2 degrees budget and mean Australia gives up on the Paris agreement.

It is expected that Anthony Albanese will tomorrow announce that Labor will adopt a target of net-zero by 2050, without any target for 2030. Based on current projections, a simple straight-line reduction from 2022-2050 would blow Australia’s ‘2 degrees’ budget (as determined by the Climate Change Authority) and would likely exceed the 2 degrees budget as early as 2034.