Dunlop, who has unsuccessfully put himself up for election to BHP Billiton’s board, has taken a swipe at Abbott for his “captain’s call” to back coal after a federal court overturned his environment minister’s approval of Carmichael.
Dunlop, who chaired the government-backed panel which designed Australia's first proposed carbon emissions trading scheme in 1999, said the last few days have “demonstrated just how far out of touch some in the Australian media and political incumbency are from critical climate change events happening around the world”
The Queensland Resources Council, Environment Minister Greg Hunt and the Minerals Council of Australia, along with the Australian Financial Review, among others, have roundly condemned eco-activists for jeopardising jobs and the economy by targeting such projects.
The court found that Hunt had not properly considered advice about two threatened species – the yakka skink and the ornamental snake – when he approved the project last year.
Yet Dunlop said that instead of condemnation, the activists should be congratulated for their “responsibility in trying prevent substantial economic damage and wasted assets, which will be the outcome if the Galilee Basin coal developments are allowed to proceed”
“Predictably we now have the Prime Minister’s captain’s call. Coal, we are repeatedly told, is essential for the future of humanity, and for the alleviation of poverty in countries like India,” Dunlop said.
“Every other consideration must now be put aside in the interests of these major projects proceeding – not just in the Galilee, but also the Shenhua Watermark mine in the Liverpool Plains, coal seam gas everywhere, and a host of others.
“The preservation of biodiversity, such as the snakes and skinks in Galilee, is extremely important, but the real issue is climate change. Clearly the incumbency does not understand the implications of the latest climate science and evidence of climate change impact around the world.
“Those who lead economic debate in this country need to wake up to the fact that climate change will be the factor having the greatest impact on the Australian economy and society from now, to the point that it will fundamentally change our economic and business models.
“It should be at the top of the agenda for the forthcoming National Reform Summit being promoted by both The Australian and the Australian Financial Review newspapers, but it is a fair bet it does not even feature.
“This ‘captain’s call’, if the Prime Minister gets his way, will be the biggest economic disaster in Australia’s history and will fundamentally undermine our national security. Sounder heads must prevail.”
He said climate change was happening far faster and more extensively than officially acknowledged, largely driven by human carbon emissions.
“We are experiencing substantial economic and social damage at the 1C warming which has already occurred relative to pre-industrial levels, let alone the additional 1C to which we are probably committed by virtue of historic emissions. The official limit of 2C warming is not safe, it is now highly dangerous,” Dunlop said.
“If the Galilee Basin and Watermark are developed it will have catastrophic climate consequences, akin to other large high-carbon expansions such as the Canadian tar sands. Quite simply, as the IMF, IEA, World Bank and other authorities state, these developments cannot be allowed to happen.”
He also defied World Coal Association analysis that says poverty will help alleviate poverty, saying that coal would instead create it.
“Have the incumbency ‘experts’ thought about the extreme events happening right now on the Indian Subcontinent – unprecedented heat last week, unprecedented rainfall now, to which climate change is contributing significantly?” he said.
