What did Scott Morrison, Australia’s Leader, accomplish at COP26

Australia, a major producer fossil fuels, has been criticized for being slow to address climate change. However, this week has done little.

Scott Morrison, Prime Minster of Scotland, didn’t join an international effort at the Glasgow summit on climate change. curb global emissions of methane30 percent by 2030, a commitment that more than 100 countries including the United States have made. Australia also declined to strengthen its 2030 targetfor reducing its emissions or announcing firm plans to transition away fossil fuel production.

Mr. Morrison has signed on to an agreement end deforestation by 2030500 million in new funding was offered to neighboring countries to combat the effects of climate change. He also last week pledged to get his country to net zero emissionsBy 2050. Critics argued that the government was not acting quickly enough or was making vague promises.

Addressing the conference on Monday, Mr. Morrison said that Australia’s emissions would fall 35 percent by 2030, exceeding an earlier goal of 26 to 28 percent but still well below the targets set by other industrialized nations. It is also one the last developed countries to commit to zero emissions.

After being criticized by Queen Elizabeth II and others, Morrison had only agreed to attend this summit. crowd-funded billboard in Times Square in New York that mocked his reluctance to address climate change, calling him “Coal-o-phile Dundee.”

Australia’s inertia points to a pressing challenge for the world: how to get places that profit from a dangerous product to transition before it is too late. If temperatures continue to rise, the threat of more devastating storms and fires is real and both producers and users need to stop using fossil fuels.

A U.N. reportThe results of last month’s study showed that coal, oil, gas production will continue growing at least through 2040. They will reach levels more than twice what is required to prevent a catastrophe in global temperatures.

Australia is a major contributor. Coal is still the dominant fuel, while natural gas is highly regarded.

The Great Barrier Reef might be bleachingFrom the heat and acidity of climate change, and the destruction of towns and families by the Black Summer fires in 2019 and 2020. yet to fully recover. Three new coal mining companies were approved in the past month.