What a difference four months make. In September 2019, the Australian Prime Minister, in a speech to the UN, stated that “Our children have a right not just to their future but to their optimism.” He meant that our kids should stop worrying about climate change action and let the ‘grown-ups’ deliver “significant and substantial actions”.

Sadly, leaving it to the grown-ups is not smart, especially if they have yet to wise up and see the unfolding climate change catastrophe should the current trends in greenhouse gas emissions continue.

One of the great political tragedies over the past two decades is that effective action on climate change was ‘captured’ by politics, and is now viewed through a right and left-wing lens. Parties to the left have, typically, prioritised effective climate action, while parties to the right have prioritised ‘bread and butter’ issues, such as national security. Parties to the right have also consistently argued, with little evidence, that effective climate change action destroys the economy.

With some notable exceptions, such as the federal electorates of Wentworth, which elected Independent Kerryn Phelps in a by-election in October 2018, and Warringah, which in May 2019 elected Independent Zali Steggall, defeating the incumbent former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, centrist or right-leaning Australian voters who have wanted more effective climate change action have still given their votes to right-wing parties. Simply put, other issues have mattered more to them than effective action on climate change.

If our kids are to have a future, this has to change.

Read the full article by Prof Quetin Grafton on the Asia and the Pacific Policy Society's Policy Forum