UNFCCC tells Australia to change like Saudi Arabia

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, has been in Australia this week, urging the government to lead on tackling climate change by highlighting that even Saudi Arabia has recognised the need to diversify from fossil fuels.

Figueres (pictured) discussed Saudi Arabia’s evolution from a country that has traditionally stone walled climate talks to embracing its renewable energy potential, highlighting that all countries are able to industrially and ideologically evolve stating “If the Saudis can do that, everyone else can”.

Despite being traditionally reliant on fossil fuel Saudi Arabia has begun to invest heavily in its solar power potential- with ACWA Power predicting that over half of new power requirements in the MENA region can be solar, having won a bid to build 200MW of some of the cheapest, unsubsidized solar in the world at under 6c/ kWh.

 “Australia is country that prides itself on leadership, not just in cricket, in many different fields. This cannot be an exception,” Figueres said, warning that Australia’s contribution at COP21 would be coming under intense scrutiny.

The relationship between the UNFCCC and the Australian government has been strained since Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s election in 2013. Australia failed to send a ministerial representative to the COP19 talks in Warsaw and more recently the country’s policy choices around Direct Action and the Emissions Reduction Fund have proven less than ambitious. For example, sources underpinning Direct Action appear to be based on the IEA’s 4 degree warming scenario, whilst others fear that the Emissions Reductions Fund’s allocation of $2.55billion could be exhausted within a year.

Scrutiny is also forthcoming from other developed world countries, including China, the US and the EU, as to whether these policies will be held to account within the 2 degree global target for climate change. Let’s hope that Australia are able to buck the current trend and join Saudi Arabia as serious contributor to the COP21 climate talks this December.