The government has all but ignored climate action in the budget, preferring to fund fossil fuel projects and peddle the idea of ‘adaptation’ to climate change.
While much of the media continues to perpetuate the fake “Morrison inching toward climate action” narrative, last night’s budget confirms how committed the government is to backing its fossil fuel donors and how little it is doing on climate action.
The government had already announced its new handout for fossil fuel companies that pay the Coalition hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in donations: $263 million to be given to fossil fuel companies for the fraud of carbon capture and storage projects. But the budget papers revealed more giveaways to the fossil fuel sector. According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, the government will also hand $58.6 million to the gas industry for gas infrastructure and storage, as well as over $200 million to upgrade Northern Territory roads near gas projects.
There’s some funding for a battery project, less than $50 million, but otherwise renewables don’t feature in the budget. The only significant funding for climate-related action is $210 million for an Australian Climate Service “to help Australia better anticipate, manage and adapt to the impacts of natural disasters and changing climates”. The government will also provide a $10 billion government guarantee to the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation — originally set up to provide insurance coverage for terrorism attacks — “in support of administering a reinsurance pool for cyclones and related flooding”.
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