{"id":45342,"date":"2019-05-28T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=news&p=45342"},"modified":"2024-08-16T10:26:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T09:26:03","slug":"why-it-is-important-to-work-with-conservative-governments-like-australias-on-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/why-it-is-important-to-work-with-conservative-governments-like-australias-on-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it is important to work with conservative governments like Australia\u2019s on climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rebecca Byrnes sets out three ways to progress climate action in Australia following the re-election of the centre-right Coalition. <\/em><\/p>\n

On 18 May, Australia’s conservative Coalition won the Federal election to be returned for a third term in government. The election was widely considered to be a referendum on climate change action in Australia and voters were expected to show their concern for the issue by choosing the Labor opposition, whose climate targets are significantly more ambitious than those of current Government, formed of a long-standing Coalition between the centre-right Liberal and National parties.<\/p>\n

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who lost his seat after 25 years in Parliament, acknowledged of the Government in his concession speech<\/path><\/svg><\/a> that “When climate change is a moral issue we do quite badly. When it’s an economic issue, we do very well”. Political commentator Waleed Aly<\/path><\/svg><\/a> argues that this is exactly how the election played out – in wealthy inner-city suburbs concern about climate change manifested in a swing away from the Coalition (including in Tony Abbott’s electorate of Waringah), while “almost every community that relies on resources smashed Labor”, defying pre-election polls. At least in part this may be due to the Coalition’s successful framing<\/path><\/svg><\/a> of Labor’s climate policies as a major cost to the economy, including the claim that they would cost 167,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

The election result cannot, of course, be attributed entirely to climate policy. The rise of minor conservative parties, including tens of millions<\/path><\/svg><\/a> of dollars spent on campaigning for the United Australia Party by Clive Palmer, also helped to funnel votes towards the Coalition through Australia’s preferential voting system.<\/p>\n

Conservatism does not need to be incompatible with climate action<\/h2>\n

The Australian Government’s target of reducing emissions by 26–28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 is very low by international standards<\/path><\/svg><\/a>. And with President Trump pledging to withdraw from the Paris Agreement<\/path><\/svg><\/a>, Brazil’s Bolsonaro reducing protections for the Amazon,<\/path><\/svg><\/a> and Alberta’s new conservative premier Jason Kenney already moving to repeal the state’s carbon tax<\/path><\/svg><\/a>, one could be forgiven for concluding that conservative governments have a poor record on climate change.<\/p>\n

Under this assumption there is a danger that in Australia people will write off climate action under the re-elected conservative Coalition for the next three years. But Conservativism and climate action need not be mutually exclusive, as the UK’s story shows.<\/p>\n

The UK’s ‘world first’ Climate Change Act, passed in 2008, benefited from ‘competitive consensus’<\/a> between the Labour government and Conservative opposition, which strengthened rather than weakened the Act’s key provisions. Furthermore, the UK has demonstrated that action on climate change can be a driver for economic growth, having successfully reduced emissions while seeing GDP continue to rise.<\/path><\/svg><\/a> Even in the midst of the distraction of Brexit, the current centre-right Conservative government asked the independent advisory Committee on Climate Change to provide advice on whether the UK should adopt a target of net-zero emissions by mid-century. The advice<\/path><\/svg><\/a> came back in the affirmative – and Business Secretary Greg Clark has indicated<\/path><\/svg><\/a> it is likely the UK government will adopt it.<\/p>\n

Three ways to progress climate action under current political conditions<\/h2>\n

Although the UK’s approach might demonstrate that climate action in Australia does not have to stall during the Coalition’s time in government, a concerted and strategic effort will be required by climate professionals, activists, researchers and sub-national governments. Possible steps are set out below.<\/p>\n

1. Engage with government on terms it understands<\/h3>\n

As climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe stated in a recent lecture<\/a> at the London School of Economics, it is important to learn how to communicate the benefits of climate action in a way that engages the core values of those you wish to influence.<\/p>\n

Australia’s Liberal party<\/path><\/svg><\/a> was born out of a desire to promote individual freedom, free enterprise and social equality, while the National Party<\/path><\/svg><\/a> has a strong focus on regional Australia, including the agricultural and mining industries. The Coalition’s election platform<\/path><\/svg><\/a> included little mention of climate change but rather focused more broadly on job creation, reducing national debt and taxes, investing in schools, hospitals and roads, national security and immigration. It is useful to consider how action on climate change might in fact align with these ideologies.<\/p>\n