All The Dumb Shit Australian Reps Did At COP26 & Ugh Why Are We Like This

australia cop26 performance embarrassing

By

Courtney Fry

Published

The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (aka COP26) came to a close over the weekend, after two very full-on weeks of the world realising the clock is well and truly ticking on the planet’s natural world.

In the last days of the summit, the Glasgow Climate Pact was formed, which pushes for more urgent emissions cuts and an actual plan to reduce the production of coal.

The last two weeks, however, involved a display of truly embarrassing performances by the people representing the Australian government (read: Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor). From being ranked dead last on climate policy to lauding an entire coal company at the conference, there was a lot happening in the Australian corner of COP26, and it didn’t make us look good on the global stage.

We thought we’d round up and present every truly head-in-hands embarrassing moment from the last fortnight at the climate change summit for your enjoyment and/or detriment.

Australia Refused To End Coal Power At COP26

A big part of the summit was the discussion around seriously moving away from fossil fuels and into cleaner sources of power. About halfway through the COP26 summit, 190 countries across the globe all agreed on phasing out coal power and new power stations for the fossil fuel. Australia wasn’t one of those countries.

The final product of the COP26 conference – the Glasgow Climate Pact – leans more on the idea of significantly reducing coal power instead of phasing it out completely. It was claimed that in the lead-up to the pact being agreed upon, Australia was pushing to change the language around coal specifically, allowing production to continue in some capacity.

Angus Taylor Referenced Sir David Attenborough To Promote Fossil Fuels

YOU GET THAT PRECIOUS MAN’S NAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.

Australia’s Pavilion Showed Off A Literal Fossil Fuel Company

The Australia section of the conference stalls was literally promoting Santos, the second-largest oil and gas producer in the country. It had a large model of the company’s “carbon capture and storage” at Moomba in South Australia, and the government’s pitch of a technology-led approach.

But hey, at least the Australia stall had the best coffee, I guess?

Australia Won The Colossal Fossil Award

Throughout the entire conference, Climate Action Network – a non-profit collective of environmentalist organisations from over 130 countries – were handing out daily “Fossil Of The Day” awards.

For starters, Australia came runner-up on each of the first two days. We were (rightfully) slapped for our lack of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to curbing climate change, pushing coal and fossil fuel production, and initiating conversation on 10 new areas for offshore petroleum exploration on top of the amount of coal and gas the country exports.

After netting a total of five (5) Fossil awards, the Climate Action Network actually pinned Australia as the overall winner (read: loser) of COP26. Australia was handed the Colossal Fossil award for expanding fossil fuel production in the face of environmental collapse and simply having “no ambition” when it comes to climate change. Cool!

COP26 Protesters Called Morrison A “Climate Criminal”‘

Being lumped in with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Brazil’s Jair Bolsanaro, China’s Xi Jinping? Not a good look!

Once again, another simply stellar performance on the world stage from Australia. You simply love to see it. Now to stare into the void for a while to try and forget how incredibly embarrassing this all is.

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