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CLIMATE SCIENCE
Australian PM says may not join global climate summit
by AFP Staff Writers
Sydney (AFP) Sept 27, 2021

Dozens of climate activists arrested at UK port protest
London Sept 24, 2021 - British police arrested 39 people Friday after dozens of climate protesters temporarily blocked access to the port of Dover, Europe's busiest ferry hub, demanding the government step up home insulation. The civil disobedience demonstration is the latest by Insulate Britain, a new group whose activists have repeatedly blocked traffic on London's busy M25 orbital motorway. Police in Kent, southeast England, said the 39 people were detained on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and obstructing a highway, after officers were alerted to people blocking roads near the port on Friday morning. Insulate Britain said that more than 40 activists had obstructed the approaches to the eastern and western docks at Dover. The port, which sits on the Channel coast less than 30 miles (50 kilometres) from France, handles around 17 percent of Britain's goods trade. Traffic was brought to a standstill, but officials said the port itself remained open. Kent police chief superintendent Simon Thompson said his officers were working with other forces, prosecutors and partner agencies "to gather evidence and ensure there are consequences for those who break the law". Insulate Britain earlier apologised for the disruption but said it was "the only way to keep the issue of insulation on the agenda". "We are blocking Dover this morning to highlight that fuel poverty is killing people in Dover and across the UK," a spokesperson said. "We must tell the truth about the urgent horror of the Climate Emergency. Change at the necessary speed and scale requires economic disruption. We wish it wasn't true, but it is." Mirroring the disruptive tactics adopted by the global Extinction Rebellion grouping in recent years, Insulate Britain has blocked motorway traffic five times since mid-September. Following a government victory over a court injunction on the M25 protests on Wednesday, the Department for Transport on Friday announced a further injunction against protesters on roads linked to Dover meaning further disruption could lead to activists being imprisoned or fined. "The British public are rightly furious that the behaviours of a selfish minority have been putting lives at risk and causing untold disruption on our roads and now at Dover," Home Secretary Priti Patel said. "We will not tolerate the recklessness of these few activists and the police continue to have our full support in cracking down on their dangerous behaviour," she added. The protests come as Britain prepares to host the UN climate change conference COP26 in Glasgow in November, with hopes of firmer international commitments to prevent runaway global warming.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under pressure to adopt a 2050 net-zero carbon emissions target, said in an interview published Monday that he may not join this year's landmark UN climate summit in Glasgow.

The world's biggest coal exporter by value, and still reliant on fossil fuels for most of its electricity, Australia has not made a firm commitment on its own greenhouse gas reductions.

Morrison has vowed to mine and export fossil fuels as long as there are buyers.

Asked about attending the global climate crisis conference in November, Morrison told the West Australian newspaper: "We have not made any final decisions".

"I mean it is another trip overseas and I have been on several this year and spent a lot of time in quarantine," he was quoted as saying.

"I have to focus on things here and with Covid. Australia will be opening up around that time. There will be a lot of issues to manage and I have to manage those competing demands."

The 12-day meeting in Scotland, the biggest climate conference since landmark talks in Paris in 2015, is seen as a crucial step in setting worldwide emissions targets to slow global warming.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia would be "strongly represented" at a senior level, even if Morrison did not attend the summit.

Morrison's government has suggested it will achieve net-zero carbon emissions "as soon as possible", and preferably by 2050, but has not made any commitments to do so.

The Australian prime minister told the newspaper he was trying to bring the government and the country together on commitments, to provide certainty for the next 20-30 years.

He has been in tough negotiations over setting a net-zero target within the conservative coalition government, an alliance of his own Liberal Party and the Nationals, who have much of their support base in rural and mining communities.

Climate scientists warn extreme weather and fierce fires will become increasingly common due to manmade global warming.

Environmentalists argue inaction on climate change could cost Australia's economy billions of dollars as the country suffers more intense bushfires, storms and floods.

Asked if he would commit to a specific climate target, in a separate interview with The Australian newspaper, the prime minister replied: "I can assure you we will have a plan".

Morrison told the newspaper that Australia's position as the primary energy exporter in the Asia-Pacific region would change and it was important to make a transition towards a low-emission economy.

But the prime minister added that the change had to be managed so "things keep running, things stay open, things keep getting dug out of the ground for some considerable time, you have to keep making stuff, you have to keep eating things and the world needs food".

Vanuatu fights to take climate crisis to top UN court
Sydney (AFP) Sept 24, 2021 - The tiny low-lying Pacific island of Vanuatu said Saturday it will lead a global campaign to get a landmark legal opinion from the UN's top court on the consequences of global warming.

Announced in the run-up to a major UN climate summit in Glasgow in November, the goal is to get one of the world's highest judicial authorities to weigh in on the climate crisis.

Though a legal opinion by the court would not be binding, Vanuatu hopes it would shape international law for generations to come on the damage, loss and human rights implications of climate change.

But no single state can request such an opinion from the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Instead, the island of some 300,000 people will try to sway other countries to vote for the move, targeting the next UN General Assembly in September 2022, Vanuatu government spokesman Yvon Basil told AFP.

Vanuatu, which has been hit by two category five cyclones in the past five years and is surrounded by rising seas lapping its shores, said it would coordinate efforts by other Pacific island countries and like-minded nations.

"Stories of devastation arising from climate-related events are no longer exceptional," the government said in a statement.

"Rather, they are rapidly becoming the new normal in all island nations, and in other countries and regions," it said.

A youth-led Pacific organisation that has been campaigning for climate change to be referred to the UN court welcomed Vanuatu's announcement.

"For the sake of Pacific peoples and other front-line communities, we must address the crisis," Caleb Pollard, president of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, said in a statement.


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