Essay by Eric Worrall
Climate concerns may not be the big political driver of Australia’s move to the left that people think.
In a confusing trend, concerns about climate change are gone
The latest poll suggests emissions reductions may not be the main issue affecting Australian voters.
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By 2022, 60% of Australians feel that climate change is a serious issue that needs to be urgently addressed.
Given this dramatic change to Australia’s climate policy regime, it is a puzzle to see that the Lowy Institute of annual pollShows Little changed in climate opinion aggregation patterns between the poll conducted around the 2019 election and the most recent poll conducted two months before the 2022 election. By 2022, 60% of Australians feel that climate change is a serious issue that needs to be addressed urgently (next 29% see climate change as a real but less urgent issue and 10 % not sure that it is a problem at all). This is hardly different from the 61% figure in 2019. In fact, a Lowy Institute poll has shown that a majority of Australians support urgent action on climate change in the past five years now. ; ahead of a change of government in 2022 to hand power to a party with relatively stronger climate ambitions.
Stability of views on climate in Lowy Institute poll from 2018 with nearly 60% majority wanting urgent action after a tumultuous decade of climate politics in Australia with sector mobilization yet to there has been, during, and between partisan strife and divisive political campaigns. Given the high view on climate at the beginning of the Lowy Institute poll in 2006 with urgent action required at 68%, Crucially, the climate view is likely to reach its lowest point in 2012, when it fell to 36%. And, especially important, public support for emergency action has waned under the 2007–2013 Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor governments that worked to implement the policy regime. climate, against unprecedented public resistance by the mineral industry, before being consolidated under the Abbot- The Turnbull-Morrison Coalition governments for 2013–2022 came to power right from the opposition to the pledge to “cut taxes” on carbon emissions.
Should Australians demand ambitious climate action until they grapple with reality and argue over climate policy implementation? If the climate view remains steady at 60% in favor of urgent action while the Alban government implements a climate policy regime – likely to withstand headwinds by the strongmen “The Carbon Club”Outcry from politics, industry and the media – the question of whether the 2022 election will mark a step change in Australia’s relationship with climate action is unanswerable.
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I guess the real explanation for the change in Federal government last May is, nobody liked the former. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Possibly the most damaging thing ScoMo has done during his tenure is describes the entire state of Western Australia as “Cave Dwellers”, not modern humans – my conservative WA friends still spit about it in the lead-up to the election. They did not vote for him. This mistake was followed by mishandling the congressional sexual assault casethis has caused a collapse in support from women voters and other periods of poor evaluation such as vacation in the middle of a big forest fire, which makes ScoMo seem out of place and insensitive to people’s needs. This is his last forged spindle, his detailed free attempt to embrace Net Zeromakes him look weak and duplicated.
One compelling point made by Lowy is that climate concerns tend to plummet when an elected government is trying to do something about carbon emissions, presumably because of the economic pain caused. because this effort is a wake-up call that there are other priorities. The current Australian government has problems on that front, soaring energy prices and blackout threats.
Lowy did not mention Climategate, although Australia’s climate concerns were well off before 2009, when the Climategate emails were released. Climategate is a rare public revelation that for a time has disrupted people’s perception of scientific objectivity, because it shows scientists acting like spoiled children or politicians. politicians rather than scientists – applying questionable “tricks” and manipulating data, such as clearly deleting data did not ‘didn’t conform to the narrative they presented, from deny skeptics access to data, threaten physical violence, and use dirty tricks such as threats to boycott scientific journals to try to weed out competing views or attempt dismissals unfriendly magazine editors.
The funniest part of this poll is the confirmation that the Greens are their own worst enemy. If green people had embraced nuclear power from the start, there would have been no painful economic wake-up call, and maybe even no Climategate. I only started questioning the supposed climate crisis because of the vehement rejection of the most obvious solution. Many of us have had similar warnings on the road to cynicism. It’s like the Greens want to fail.
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