Taking selfies won't tackle climate change, says Bill Shorten

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement that he will attend the Paris climate summit in December 2015 has been welcomed by Labor party members in the Opposition. However, leaders have criticised Turnbull’s approach by calling it the global warming “sceptic” policy. Labor believes that the PM’s attendance at the summit will not change Australia’s “low ambition” to tackle the problem.

Turnbull revealed his intention to attend the Paris climate summit to The Guardian on Oct 23. The UN climate change summit had been shunned by his predecessor, Tony Abbott. Australia’s 2030 target to reduce emissions by 26-28 percent of 2005 levels had been set by Abbott, who was predicted to skip the climate change meeting after Labor’s carbon tax had been scrapped and the country’s renewable energy target reduced by his government, reports the Business Spectator.

Turnbull has decided to go to the UN climate change summit with the same approach as the Abbott government’s direct action climate change policy. According to the Business Spectator, the policy has been criticised for being ineffective and expensive, and it pays polluters to not pollute. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has said that symbolic attendance will not be enough to stop global warming.

Shorten says, “The Australian government is selling Australia short with their low targets and low aspirations, their knee-high ambitions for tackling climate change in Australia,” reports The Guardian. “I’m glad that Malcolm Turnbull is going to Paris, I just wish he was taking policies other that Tony Abbott’s discredited Direct Action policy.”

Other developed countries, such as the US, will take more ambitious targets to the Paris climate summit. The country has pledged a 26-28 per cent reduction by 2025, while EU has pledged a 40 per cent reduction of 1990 levels by 2030.

“Whether or not Malcolm Turnbull goes to Paris or not is not going to stop global warming,” Shorten told the Guardian. “It’s not a question of what places you visit, or what selfies you take when you visit places, it’s a question of your actions. Unfortunately, Australia is not leading, we’re following other parts of the world.”

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