The Australian Greens Party has accused the minister for emissions reductions in the conservative Liberal-National federal government of “hiding” evidence of rising pollution after the government missed a deadline to provide emissions data.
At the same time the Australian Greens also called for Australia’s environment laws to be changed to consider the threats of climate change.
The national greenhouse gas inventory for the December quarter was due by last Friday under a schedule set by Australia’s upper house Senate.
AAP Newsagency reports Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor, who has taken over responsibility for emissions from the former environment minister Melissa Price, could not use the recent federal election as an excuse.
“They’ve had five months to gather the information from the department and get it together,” she told ABC Radio today.
“This is more of hiding the facts from the people. They’re now in contempt of Parliament.”
Senator Hanson-Young said she expected the figures would show an increase in pollution.
“The government is doing very little to cut pollution to deal with the very dangerous escalation of global warming and climate change.”
The September quarterly results showed a slight reduction in emissions compared to the previous three-month period before then, but a rise year-on-year.
Environment Department officials told Senate estimates hearings before the election that they did not expect the deadline would be a problem.
AAP reports a department spokesperson has since said the data would be released “soon” and did not comment on why it had been delayed.
Mr Taylor’s office was also been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, the Australian Greens are also calling for Australia’s environment laws to be changed to consider the threats of climate change.
“In this age of climate change, it would be ridiculous and reckless not to take pollution into account when reviewing major development proposals.
Senator Hanson-Young plans to introduce a Private Member’s Bill, which would insert a “climate trigger” into federal environment laws, ensuring that pollution is considered in major project proposals.
Senator Hanson-Young said environmental assessments should include the impact of pollution and on climate change even when resources are shipped overseas.
“Projects like Adani (coal mine project in central Queensland) and drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight simply wouldn’t be approved if a climate trigger was in place,” she said.
The opposition Labor Party’s shadow environment minister Terri Butler said her party had taken to the election a policy of inserting a reference to climate change in federal environmental laws, which had not been significantly reformed in two decades.
“I will be holding discussions with colleagues, stakeholders and the community to formulate our policy for the next election,” she told AAP.
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