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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Comment
Bill Hare

As Cop29 wraps up and the climate crisis gathers pace, Australia’s dash for gas is confounding

Australia’s place in front of empty chairs at Cop29 in Baku
‘Australia likes to present itself as a progressive country that’s taking strong climate action but I’m afraid on fossil fuels it’s entirely hypocritical.’ Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Cop29 in Baku has concluded but its outcome is disappointing – in many dimensions. Its decisions on finance – agreeing that the developed world would provide US$300bn a year by 2035 – come nowhere close to what’s needed. Ultimately, it may even be poisonous because of its lack of ambition and muddled scope – it does not even cover loss and damage.

Baku saw little sense of urgency or increased climate action, despite the universal message from scientific studies, including the Climate Action Tracker. Our global update this year found that in the last three years there’s been virtually no improvement in either action on the ground, nor ambition to take action in the future. And this is despite a series of seemingly never-ending, global warming-linked deadly catastrophes unfolding around the world.

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