DAN COX, HOST: Pat Conroy is the Federal Member for Shortland and Shadow Minister Assisting for Climate Change. He’s been invited to be in Glasgow as an observer. Good morning - or in your case - good evening Mr Conroy.
PAT CONROY, SHADOW MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE PACIFIC, SHADOW MINISTER ASSISTING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: Ah well good morning to both of you.
JENNY MARCHANT, HOST: (laughter) thank you. What does an observer do at COP26? What will you be doing?
CONROY: Well I’ve been there for about a day and a half and that involves sitting in on the open plenary sessions, so watching the debates, taking meetings with stakeholders and members of other delegations, because there’s lots going on around the conference floor. So it’s actually been a very busy time meeting with people. It’s a very efficient way of getting across issues and understanding what’s happening around the rest of the world.
COX: Pat Conroy, talking about the rest of the world, those leaders have all started to head home now. I was surprised by that. They go for the first couple of days and then people like you, the observers, and the debates continue. Can big decisions still be made without the Scott Morrisons, Joe Bidens, Emmanuel Macrons there?
CONROY: Oh absolutely. Now is the time for detailed negotiations on critical parts of the climate treaties. So the sort of big political headline acts have gone, but now we get down to the nitty gritty of the negotiations. And there’s still high profile people around. John Kerry, the US Climate Envoy was around today and I’m pretty sure Barack Obama is going to be here in Glasgow next week pushing for stronger action on climate change. So there’s still plenty more to see and do.
MARCHANT: What are you taking a particular interest in then? If you’re looking at where you will spend your time and get the most benefit, what is your priority?
CONROY: So tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow they’re talking about the future of energy policy, so that’s both how we produce electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions, and later in the day there’s going to be a debate about the future of coal. So that’s obviously very relevant to our region.
And there’s also the ongoing debate about what the contributions, the greenhouse gas emissions commitments that each country has given, means for world temperatures. So the good news is today that UN-released data shows that the total commitments given at this conference if delivered, and that’s always a big if, mean that we can keep global warming below two degrees Celsius. Ideally it should be below 1.5, but a commitment of two degrees is a lot better than where we were even a month ago. So that’s great news. Obviously what the Australian Government committed to was a lot less than that, and that’s obviously something that has been noted by a few participants at the conference.
COX: Something that was making news yesterday was our Prime Minister Scott Morrison signing up for a fund to help Pacific Island nations. Now one of your roles is Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific. That has been an interesting part of the last couple of days. What do you think can be done to help those nations when it comes to climate change, sea level rise, natural disasters, and do you think the fund will help?
CONROY: It will help, and I welcome the Government’s announcement of an extra $500 million to do that. Politics – we are always in a very critical business so it’s important to be positive where we can, and I welcome that extra $500 million.
But the Pacific leaders here, particularly the Fijian leader, have made it very clear that that really is what they call clean up money. It’s money that’s there to deal with the unavoidable aspects of climate change. What they are really hoping for is for Australia to lift our 2030 emissions reduction target.
That’s what they are desperate for. As I said, Australia hasn’t done that. We’ve refused to increase our 2030 emissions reduction target. The main request from the Pacific nations is for every developed country and developing country to lift our emissions reduction targets so that we’ve got a chance of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees because this is an existential crisis for these countries. Some of these nations will cease to exist unless we keep climate change under check, and that’s their main request from countries like Australia.
MARCHANT: We will watch news out of Glasgow over the next few days with interest. Thank you for speaking to us.
CONROY: My pleasure, have a great morning. Bye bye.