On the first day of COP26, a message to the World
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 2 Nov 2021
To symbolise Australia’s Climate Pariah status, and our major parties’ chronic addiction to life-destroying fossil fuels, XR presents two mock politicians literally torching the nation.
Our politicians are setting Australia on fire.
We are ashamed and disgusted by Angus Taylor, the minister responsible for reducing emissions in this critical decade, who is using COP26 as an opportunity to sell more emission-intensive fossil fuels to the world. Angus Taylor, whose connections to oil, gas and coal interests run so deep that he even tried to force the federal renewable energy agency to fund fossil fuels.
We are ashamed and disgusted by Sussan Ley, the so-called minister for environment, who personally approved four new coal mine projects only weeks after the Federal Court ruled that she has a duty of care to Australian children.
We are ashamed and disgusted by Barnaby Joyce, the deputy prime minister, who remains a climate denialist to this day. His price for agreeing to a net zero by 2050 target was a $3bn coal train and an extra cabinet seat for his denialist mate.
And we are especially ashamed and disgusted by this Prime Minister, who calls himself a Christian, but knows nothing about the sanctity of life. In the next couple of weeks he will do his best to fool everyone into thinking that he’s really trying to bring Australia into the climate action tent. But his hands are still stained black from the coal he dragged into Parliament only four years ago.
So, leaders of the world, let's be clear. If we're to have any chance of genuine success at COP26, you must lock Australia out of negotiations. Lock Matthias Cormann, Australia's fossil fuel plant in the OECD, out of negotiations. Make bold decisions. Place trade sanctions on climate laggard nations such as ours. That is the only way to stop Australia from continuing on its mad path of ecocide and genocide.