A more substantial investment in renewable energies is needed if Australia hopes to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with climate science, according to a University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney expert.
Australia has reported a reduction in gas emissions due to COVID-19 restrictions, recording the lowest level since 1998. National emissions in the June quarter 2020 were estimated to be 8 per cent – or approximately 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – lower than a year earlier.
However, Professor Jeremy Moss, an expert in climate justice and political philosophy from UNSW Arts and Social Sciences, says more needs to be done.
“Australia’s domestic emissions fell less than 1 per cent in 2019 while the emissions from our exported fossil fuels rose 4.4 per cent. COVID-19 will only slightly alter that trend unless more is done,” he said.
The Australian Industry Group has urged the Federal Government to spend $3.3 billion on renewable energy in the next decade in a pre-budget submission, saying the cost of “climate-related impacts and risks” is set to hit the country hard, even in the best-case scenario.
But Professor Moss believes that this amount falls shy of the necessary investment required.
“Australia will need to spend far more than $3.3 billion in the next decade to achieve reasonable greenhouse gas reductions targets,” he said.
Jeremy Moss is a professor in political philosophy and an expert in climate justice, the ethics of renewable energy, and the ethical issues associated with climate transitions. He is Director of the Practical Justice Initiative and leads the Climate Justice Research program at UNSW Sydney.
Moss has published several books including Climate Change and Social Justice, and Climate Change and Justice (Cambridge University Press). He is the recipient of the Eureka Prize for Ethics, the Australasia Association of Philosophy Media Prize and several Australian Research Council Grants including most recently, Ethics, Responsibility and the Carbon Budget, with researchers from Adelaide, ANU and Oxford.
He chaired the UNESCO working group on Climate Ethics and Energy Security, and has been a visitor at Oxford, Milan and McGill universities. Recent publications include: ‘The Morality of Divestment’, Law and Policy, July 2017; ‘Mining and Morality’, Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol 51 No 3, 2016; ‘Going It Alone: Cities and States for Climate Action’, Ethics, Policy and Environment’, 12/2/18.
