Australia is already an energy superpower. We should be using that to drive the world towards renewables

(The Guardian, 19 Oct 2023) The coal and gas we provide internationally makes us powerful – and we waste it being craven to the mining industry.

The Australian government likes to say we can be a renewable energy superpower, but it ignores that we already are an energy power that fails utterly to use that power for good.

The past weekend was the 10th anniversary of the Abbott government releasing the draft legislation to repeal of the carbon tax, and also of a report noting that IPCC suggested that “global warming could kill thousands of Australians”.

The past weekend also saw the UN release temperatures for last month, which was the hottest-ever September on record. It came after August was the hottest-ever August on record, after July was the hottest-ever July on record and – just to make it an even four months in a row – after June was also the hottest-ever June on record:

From 1900 to 1969 there was a new monthly record once every two years. Since 2010 it has happened, on average, once every four months. It almost makes you wish the climate change deniers who said the world has not warmed since 1998 were right.

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The Guardian, 19 Oct 2023: Australia is already an energy superpower. We should be using that to drive the world towards renewables