Australians are waking up to why coal matters - US environmentalist

Bill McKibben, the US environmentalist, has insisted that a looming election defeat for Labor will do little to alter growing activist pressure on Australian superannuation funds and businesses to withdraw funding from fossil fuel companies.

McKibben, whose Do the Maths lecture tour of Australia concluded with an appearance in Brisbane on Sunday, told Guardian Australia there was increasing momentum behind the anti-coal movement, despite a clear polling lead for opposition leader Tony Abbott, who has pledged a “blood oath” to repeal the carbon pricing scheme and scrap various clean energy initiatives.

“People were more fired up in Australia than I expected,” McKibben said. “We had sold-out shows and that really encourages me.”

“I don’t understand a huge amount about Australian politics and the election seems strange to me as one side seems to have given up. But that doesn’t seem much to do with carbon pricing. None of the predictions of doom and disaster have come true at all.”

“It’s been made clear to me that Australians are waking up to the important understanding that while the carbon price is very important, it’s even more important that the coal stays in the ground.”

“There’s no despondency. People are fired up and ready to go in Australia. I’m glad to see it.”

McKibben’s tour, which has taken in seven Australian cities, as well as several TV and radio appearances, is focused on the fact that the world cannot burn more than 565 gigatonnes of carbon to stay below the internationally-agreed limit of 2C of warming on pre-industrial levels.

According to McKibben, Australia has proven coal and gas resources that would eat up around a third of the planet’s carbon ‘budget.’ He has denounced the coal industry as a “rogue” and “radical” sector that is endangering the future of the planet, provoking the ire of the Australian Coal Association and some sections of the media.

McKibben said that the opposition to his tour, and even the likely election of the Coalition on 14 September, masks the growing support behind the fossil fuel divestment cause.

“Listening to hysterical rhetoric of the coal industry, they know their time is drawing short, that’s why they are in a desperate rush to build stuff,” he told Guardian Australia.

“These are the last days of their boom, time is not on their side. The longer we can fight and delay and hold them off, the better the odds of keeping the coal in the ground and not letting the planet deteriorate further.”

McKibben said that Australia’s Uniting Church has now backed away from fossil fuel investment and that a Sydney meeting with Goldman Sachs and selected superannuation fund managers was encouraging.

“I don’t think that these investors will all change their minds tomorrow, but the seed has been planted and now it gives us more and more opportunities to talk about the topic,” he said.

“Investing professionals realise that it is a financial bubble. HSBC and Citi have both put out reports saying that if we take the 2C target seriously, it will cut the share values of fossil fuel companies in half.

“It’s clear that this is not a wacky idea. On my first night in Australia on Q&A, Senator (Cory) Bernardi said ‘this is madness.’ Increasing numbers of people realise what we are doing to the planet is the real madness. Melting the Arctic is nuts.”