Richard Boyd Barrett: Climate action needs a just transition
Richard Boyd Barrett addresses the house demanding the government recommit to tackling the climate and biodiversity crisis with urgency and a just transition. He accuses ministers of abandoning serious action, leaning toward Trump-style denialism, and imposing costs on ordinary people.
Richard Boyd Barrett says the government has largely given up on robust climate and biodiversity policy and must recommit immediately. He insists any response must be a just transition that does not saddle vulnerable households with new costs while allowing the major polluters to profit.
Boyd Barrett highlights the human cost: 320,000 people in electricity arrears, 180,000 in gas arrears and one in four facing energy poverty according to ESRI figures cited in the speech. He argues carbon taxes that fall on ordinary households will discredit the climate agenda unless the policy protects those already struggling.
He calls for targeted measures against those who profit from environmental destruction - fossil fuel companies and large energy users such as data centres - and for positive supports to bring people on board: free public transport, energy credits and free home retrofits funded by progressive taxation.
Boyd Barrett links the retreat from serious climate action to a broader political shift he describes as bending the knee to Trump-style denialism and warmongering. He warns continued militarism and inaction will worsen environmental destruction and will impose heavy economic costs on ordinary people.
Main argument
Richard Boyd Barrett says the government has largely given up on robust climate and biodiversity policy and must recommit immediately. He insists any response must be a just transition that does not saddle vulnerable households with new costs while allowing the major polluters to profit.
Energy poverty and fairness
Boyd Barrett highlights the human cost: 320,000 people in electricity arrears, 180,000 in gas arrears and one in four facing energy poverty according to ESRI figures cited in the speech. He argues carbon taxes that fall on ordinary households will discredit the climate agenda unless the policy protects those already struggling.
Policy prescriptions
He calls for targeted measures against those who profit from environmental destruction - fossil fuel companies and large energy users such as data centres - and for positive supports to bring people on board: free public transport, energy credits and free home retrofits funded by progressive taxation.
Political context and consequences
Boyd Barrett links the retreat from serious climate action to a broader political shift he describes as bending the knee to Trump-style denialism and warmongering. He warns continued militarism and inaction will worsen environmental destruction and will impose heavy economic costs on ordinary people.
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Transcript
I thank Deputy O'Gorman for this important motion and he's absolutely right to highlight the need for the government to recommit in a serious way because they seem to have abandoned any serious effort to address the climate and biodiversity crisis that threatens our planet, threatens the ability of the planet to sustain human life in the long run and certainly will impose a huge cost on ordinary people unless it is addressed and is addressed as a matter of urgency and it seems as part of the many areas in which this government has bent the knee to Trump and his climate denialism, his warmongering and his obnoxious agenda in general, the pulling back from any serious efforts and giving up, abandoning to a significant extent attempts to deal with the climate and biodiversity crisis is another one of those pretty pathetic sort of submissions to the Trump agenda and you look at what Trump's warmongering has now done, how not only is it raining down death and destruction which by the way all of that is an environmental disaster, if that level of militarism continues the destruction of the climate is an absolute guarantee but it's also imposing a huge cost, economic and financial cost on ordinary people here and we saw the consequences of that. So we need to address this and that means recommitting to the climate targets, to addressing biodiversity, things like the marine protected areas which the government have dragged their heels on, pathetically low level of sort of protection of our marine area and the biodiversity in it. But what is absolutely critical, and this is where I do have a genuine disagreement with Deputy Gorman and others in the house including on the left, is it has to be a just transition. It has to be a just transition. Now for 320,000 people who are in electricity arrears, 180,000 who are in gas arrears and for according to the ESRI one in four people who are suffering energy poverty, any further imposed imposition of a financial cost on them over issues like energy flies in the face of any suggestions of just transition. That's why we impose the carbon tax. You cannot, in fact you're discrediting the climate agenda by saying that ordinary people should pay carbon taxes when they are not profiting from the destruction of the environment, they have no choice about the energy they use. We should be targeting the people who profit from the destruction of the environment. That means the fossil fuel companies, the data centres, the people who actually are holding up the addressing of the climate and biodiversity crisis or worse, profiting from it. And we need to actively encourage people to buy into the green agenda by supporting things like free public transport, by giving things like energy credits, by rolling out free retrofits which are paid for through progressive taxation. That's the sort of thing that can bring ordinary people on side with the urgent need to address the climate and biodiversity crisis. For more UN videos visit www.un.org