Anthony Albanese signs Australia up to pay billions to help poor countries deal with climate change

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of ‘dog whistling’ to racist voters by complaining about Australia paying poor countries for climate damage loss.

The opposition leader began Question Time on Monday by asking ‘doesn’t charity begin at home?’ regarding the $2 trillion international fund.

Australia signed up to the loss and damage climate fund at the COP27 summit in Egypt on Sunday, along with other rich nations.

The fund will help developing countries deal with the affects of climate change, such as natural disasters and rising sea levels, but details are still to be hammered out.

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of ‘dog whistling’ to racist voters by complaining about Australia paying poor countries for climate damage loss

Mr Dutton argued Australian tax dollars should be spent in Australia instead of being used as what was essentially foreign aid.

‘At a time when Labor’s policies are driving up cost-of-living pressures for families, the government has just signed up to funding a $2 trillion loss and damage climate fund which will send money overseas and beyond our region,’ he said.

‘Prime minister, doesn’t charity begin at home? When will you start helping Australian families instead of giving away their money?’

Mr Albanese said the question was offensive and a tactic by the Coalition to ‘dog whistle’ to racist voters.

‘The idea that any foreign aid is giving Australians money to foreigners ahead of Australian interests, the leader of the opposition knows better, and he knows exactly what he is doing with that question,’ he said.

‘And the only people who are pleased about that question are the people sitting in the corner up there.

‘Because they represent seats that have rejected that sort of dog-whistling tactic from the Liberal Party.’

The ‘people sitting in the corner’ were the teal independents who snatched safe Liberal seats at the election by combining pro-business policy with progressive social policy and support for climate action. 

Mr Albanese’s reference to ‘dog whistling’ describes a strategy of using coded language to appeal to a particular group without saying something others are likely to take strong issue with.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton argued Australian tax dollars should be spent in Australia instead of being used as what was essentially foreign aid

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‘The only people who are pleased about that question are the people sitting in the corner up there,’ Mr Albanese said, pointing at the teal independents who took safe Liberal seats by advocating progressive social policy and climate change action

The PM also went after Mr Dutton for a joke he made in 2015 to then-PM Tony Abbott about drowning Pacific Islanders.

Mr Dutton was overheard remarking how late a meeting was running, which Mr Abbott said was the same as climate change talks he just had with with Papua New Guinea leaders.

‘Time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door,’ Mr Dutton joked in response.

Mr Albanese said Australia needed an opposition that cared about tackling climate change, not ‘that sort of nonsense’.

‘I’d say to the leader of the opposition, ‘You’re better than that. You’re better than that’… Or maybe you’re not,’ he said.

Mr Dutton made a fresh apology for the joke, was described as ‘vulgar’ and ‘soft bigotry’ by Indigenous leaders at the time, soon after being elected Liberal Party leader in May.

‘I’ve made some poor-taste jokes, like any person, over the years, and I’ve apologised for that,’ he told ABC News when asked about it.

‘I’m as human and as frail as anybody else.’

The climate loss and damage fund was the main aim of developing nations heading into the COP27 summit last week.

The US and EU have long resisted the idea of paying for damage they caused through historical carbon emissions, fearing massive legal claims.

However, both relaxed their position as the week went on when it was agreed it would be a fund they contributed to, not the threat of direct claims.

Almost all the details are still to be worked out, including exactly who will be eligible, who will pay, and what kinds of disasters could be compensated.

The US and EU also want China, which though listed as a developing country but the UN has the world’s second largest economy and pumps massive amounts of CO2 into the air, to pay as well.

China initially won’t be required to, but the possibility of it and other big emitters like India contributing will be be discussed later.  

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Youth activists hold signs encouraging world leaders to maintain policies that limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times and provide reparations for loss and damage at the COP27 summit

Victims of the unprecedented flooding from monsoon rains use makeshift barge to carry hay for cattle, in Jaffarabad, Pakistan, in September

Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, a former prime minister of the Cook Islands, told COP27 delegates ‘the climate crisis is our daily reality’.

‘On loss and damage, we cannot wait for the next COP to see action. We are experiencing loss and damage now, and delaying tactics are not acceptable,’ he said on Wednesday.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said before the deal was struck that it was too soon to commit Australian funds to the loss and damage mechanism.

Mr Bowen has made much of Australia’s support to ensure the loss and damage issue was on the COP27 agenda, but consistently said this year’s summit was never meant to talk about who would pay for what.

That, he said, is an issue for down the track.

‘You’re asking me how we’ll respond to a facility which does not yet exist and which has not been agreed at this COP yet,’ he said on Friday.

Australia quickly committed to the fund as soon as it was agreed to two days later, but its level of contribution is still an open question.

Australia basks in warm climate glow at COP27 summit 

Australian Associated Press

From climate laggard to lead negotiator. What a difference a year can make.

Australia’s new Labor government has a spring in its step after a stellar turn on the world stage at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt.

As far as rebranding exercises go, observers say COP27 couldn’t have gone any better for the Albanese regime.

It went into the talks declaring ‘Australia is back’ after a decade of climate inaction under the former Morrison government.

By the tail end of the event, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen had been asked to take over struggling negotiations about how to fund climate financing in developing nations.

It was one of many sweet moments for Australia at COP27.

There was high praise from US climate envoy John Kerry, who said Mr Bowen had demonstrated ‘the difference an election makes’, adding the new government had stepped up in a remarkable ways.

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And Pacific nations backed in Australia’s bid to co-host the 2026 summit, albeit with a warning from Vanuatu that its support depends on Australia halting funding for new fossil fuel developments.

Climate Chane Minister Chris Bowen speaks at the COP27 summit in Egypt

It was every bit the warm welcome Australia had hoped for despite the government offering little new.

‘We knew about the global methane pledge, we knew about the bidding to host the COP. A lot of what has been announced was pre-announced,’ University of Melbourne Professor Jackie Peel, who wrote reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said.

‘We haven’t heard any big commitments around financing, on adaptation.

‘And Australia seems to have secured support from Pacific countries to bid to host the COP without publicly putting anything on the table about loss and damage funding, even though that’s a key issue for the Pacific.’

Professor Peel said there was always going to be goodwill shown toward the government, which is just six months into the job.

‘We’re a good climate guy now. We’ve upped our targets, were working with others collaboratively, and we’re paving the way to be a superpower, a renewable energy, clean, green nation,’ he said.

But she warns the change of heart is unlikely to extend to the next COP28 gathering in Dubai in December 2023, when Labor will be almost half way through its term.

All eyes will be on what it does in the 12 months between now and then, including the critical pressure point of what changes or doesn’t on government support for new fossil fuel projects.

Vanuatu’s climate change minister Ralph Regenvanu has described the Albanese Government as a breath of fresh air but he also threatened to drum up Pacific opposition to Australia’s co-hosting aspirations if the government keeps subsidising such projects.

When asked on Friday if there was a moral imperative for Australia to stop opening new coal and gas fields, Mr Bowen skirted the question.

‘There’s a moral imperative for Australia to act on climate change,’ he replied.