At last weekend’s G20 summit in Brisbane, US President Barack Obama made a stop at the University of Queensland to give a stirring speech on climate change, even though our own PM Tony Abbott had explicitly left the subject off the agenda at the conference.
His speech has caused some pretty significant embarrassment within the Australian government – specifically Abbott, who once said it was “absolute crap” to assert that the science on climate change is settled – and it looks like he intended for that to happen that way.
The Australian report that the US embassy in Canberra are in damage control. An anonymous source (gotta love ’em) there has said that senior staff strongly urged Obama not to raise climate change in a way that would embarrass the Australian government.
Being Obama, he went ahead and did it anyway, making climate change a focal point of his speech, mentioning the US and China’s recent climate change pact as a jab at Australia, saying that if those two countries can agree, “the world can.”
He called upon the youth of the nation to demand more government action on climate change, and he singled out the Great Barrier Reef, saying that its “beauty and natural glory” are currently under threat.
To the cheers of the crowd, he also announced a $3 billion fund, which aims to help developing countries fight climate change, and prepare for extreme weather conditions in the Asia-Pacific region.
There are a couple of reasons to think this speech was a big surprise to the Australian government. First, plans were only revealed at the eleventh hour, and Obama’s staff demanded that it be made to an audience of young people instead of world leaders.
Second, Obama’s people refused to provide text of the speech ahead of time, or even a summary, in spite of several requests to do so.
Third, it appears to have the wind up Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Per The Australian’s report, she has accused him of “ignorance” regarding the Barrier Reef, and sent a “briefing” to the White House outlining the government’s efforts to preserve it.
It has been suggested that various key White House figures are not pleased with Abbott’s decision to abolish the carbon tax – something about which he spoke with pride in his G20 opening address – and Australia’s broader approach to climate change.
The Abbott government was undoubtedly embarrassed by the speech, but has the Prime Minister since experienced a conversion on the subject of climate change? Maybe … kind of … sort of.
Following a meeting earlier this week with French President Francois Hollande, Abbott called it “an important subject” and “one the world needs to tackle as a whole”.
He has called on countries around the world to set strong, binding emissions targets and achieve “effective outcomes” ahead of next year’s climate conference in Paris, adding, albeit, that carbon reductions should not come at the expense of jobs or growth.
This is certain a new side of Abbott. Whether it’s international attention (possible) the effects of Obama’a speech (also very possible) or those people who buried their heads in the sand in Sydney (unlikely), something interesting is definitely up.
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