The Australian Greens have vowed to block any moves to turn the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and Clean Energy Finance Corporation into fossil fuel slush funds.

ARENA and the CEFC, created via the Greens-Labor Agreement in 2010, have delivered 543 clean energy projects, driven down costs of large scale solar and facilitated $27.3 billion of job-creating investment, earning a profit for government of $1.7 billion from investing in renewables.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has introduced a Bill into the House of Representatives - Liability for Climate Change Damage (Make the Polluters Pay) Bill 2020 - which will make fossil fuel companies liable for damage from the climate crisis, granting climate victims such as recent bushfire survivors or tourism businesses affected by fires or reef bleaching the right to sue thermal coal, oil and gas companies for damages. Governments would also have the right to bring actions in their own right or on behalf of affected persons.

Australian Greens Leader Adam Bandt has warned that achieving net zero emissions by 2050 while opening new coal mines will not save us from the climate emergency, and called on Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison to commit to a strong 2030 target and a plan to phase out coal.
 
Today, Labor Leader Anthony Albanese committed the party to a target of net zero emissions by 2050, however he refused to indicate a 2030 target or commit to concrete steps to cut pollution and tackle the climate crisis.

Adam Bandt MP said:

Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP has slammed Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles comments on ABC's Insiders program and called on Anthony Albanese to overrule his deputy and join the Greens in opposing coal.

Quotes attributable to Adam Bandt MP:

"It's 3 years to the day since Scott Morrison hugged a lump of coal and now Labor is doing the same.

"The coal huggers in the Liberals want to build new coal-fired power stations and open up new coal mines and Labor is refusing to join with the Greens to stop them.

It’s time that the fossil fuel companies whose products are responsible for the climate crisis start footing some of the bill for cleaning it up. A $1 levy per tonne of carbon pollution from the country’s biggest polluters, proposed today by the Australia Institute, is the very least that these companies can do, said Leader of the Australian Greens Dr Richard Di Natale.

The Australian Government’s push for liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a low-emissions fossil fuel has been exposed with a new report finding no evidence LNG  is any ‘cleaner’ than coal.

The Conservation Council of Western Australia’s Clean State report states an international review of LNG infrastructure found the threat to the climate from LNG is ‘as large or larger than coal’ when levels of methane emissions are included.

Greens Senator for Queensland Andrew Bartlett says Malcolm Turnbull’s pledge of millions of dollars to protect the Great Barrier Reef is a wasteful publicity stunt aimed at distracting attention away from those who continue to put the Reef at risk.

“The real beneficiaries of this blatant publicity stunt are the fossil fuel giants and their Liberal Party mates who will continue to go about their business as usual - certainly not the Reef or the public, who are footing million dollar bills for wasteful projects that are doomed to fail.