Introduction by Croakey: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has, once again, highlighted the extreme urgency of climate action with its latest report warning of “a rapidly closing widow of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”.
Urging “deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”, the report says that the “choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years”.
Commenting on the report, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for:
- No new coal and the phasing out of existing coal by 2030 in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and 2040 in all other countries
- Ending all international public and private funding of coal
- Ensuring net zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed economies and 2040 for the rest of the world
- Ceasing all licensing or funding of new oil and gas
- Stopping any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves
- Shifting subsidies from fossil fuels to a just energy transition
- Establishing a global phase down of existing oil and gas production compatible with the 2050 global net zero target.
The scale and urgency of actions required is at odds with an assessment of the climate policies of the major parties contesting the NSW election, undertaken as part of an election scorecard by the NSW branch of the Public Health Association.
In the article below, Rachel Rowe, who is completing her PhD at UNSW School of Population Health and serves on the PHAA NSW branch committee, and Dr Patrick Harris, Director of the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation at UNSW, and past-President of PHAA NSW, ask: why is it so hard to get public health interests heard in decisions about coal and gas projects?
Rachel Rowe and Patrick Harris write:
That governments are having trouble responding to the climate crisis is a terrifying understatement. The left hand tries to implement limited climate policies, while the right hand signs off on coal and gas projects.
New government bodies such as AdaptNSW and NSW Health’s Climate Risk and Net Zero Unit are tiny warriors facing off against the goliath emissions that NSW’s new and expanding coal and gas projects will produce.
In 2023, the NSW Government will decide on eight proposed coal projects. If allowed to go ahead, these would add at least 1.5bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Santos’ controversial gas extraction plans would see over 850 wells drilled across the Gomeroi nation, who are united in opposition to the proposal.
NSW Government has approved 85 percent of fossil fuel projects brought before it since the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. This includes 27 new and/or expanded coal and gas projects. These are expected to release at least 3bn tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions during their projected lifetime. That’s six times Australia’s current total emissions each year.
Little wonder Australia places near worst on the MJA-Lancet’s Climate Change Performance Index, coming in at 59th place of 64 countries.
While the rest of the world is scaling back emissions, NSW is doubling down as one of the world’s leading exporters of coal and gas.
Mine and gas approvals don’t have to consider health impacts
There is no current obligation on planning officials to consider the health impacts of climate change when deciding to approve fossil fuel exploration licenses or new mines. While often air and noise pollution is flagged in social impact assessments, there are no mandatory criteria for assessing how coal and gas projects impact human health in the long-term.
NSW Minister for Planning, Anthony Roberts has presided over major reforms in his time in office. Looking to fast-track approvals processes, the Department of Environment and Planning announced its reform action plan in 2020. Shortly after came a new guideline for social impact assessment. Even if the guideline had included robust and realistic measures for the health impacts of each projects’ green-house gas emissions (which it doesn’t), the assessment criteria aren’t mandatory anyway.
In March 2022, Minster Roberts axed the Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy, which included climate mitigation and adaptation measures for the construction of apartments and houses. Developers cheered. Critics said the decision would literally kill people living in urban heat islands, such as many parts of Western Sydney.
Extreme heat events are already the leading cause of natural-disaster related deaths in Australia, and are associated with increased premature births in NSW. Vector and water-borne diseases are moving southward. On top of the immediate threat to food bowls like the Liverpool plains, our food security is irremediably threatened by more frequent and prolonged droughts. Collectively, mental health issues also reflect the acute and slow crises of the climate, particularly among Indigenous peoples and rural communities.
If you’re thinking the right hand is well off the page, you’d be right. But the health sector isn’t off the hook.
We can easily see the immediate consequences of recent fires and floods, but how can we take steps now to prevent the many complex health issues associated with dramatic changes to the ecology in which humans are a part? Adaption is becoming important, but prevention is still key.
What are the major parties’ positions on new coal and gas projects?
At the Public Health Association’s recent NSW pre-election debate, health representatives for the major parties were asked what steps, if any, they would take to pump the brakes on fossil fuel projects.
The Coalition have no plans to scale back coal and gas project approvals. To the contrary, current NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard urged caution about slowing production of coal and gas too quickly. He was optimistic about the role of renewables in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, noting the Coalition’s commitment to net zero by 2050.
Similarly, NSW Labor gave no indications of reducing new and expanded coal and gas projects. Labor also affirms net zero by 2050. Labor’s Ryan Park added that his Party is aiming for a 50 percent reduction on 2005-level emissions by 2030. Underscoring the need for environmental regulations and safety, Park argued that the mining industry should play a role in the transition to renewables.
Greens Health and Wellbeing spokesperson, Cate Faehrmann said her Party will phase out all coal and gas by 2030, with a moratorium on new coal and gas projects. She highlighted the Greens’ Transition Authority Plan to increase royalties on mining companies, which will fund the transition of workers into other industries. The Greens estimate that the fund would attract $8 billion per annum to NSW.
Fractures emerging for major parties on fossil fuel extraction
It’s becoming hard for politicians to ignore the impacts of climate change on our health. You can make it harder by letting your local candidates know that their commitments to stopping new coal and gas projects will affect your vote.
Concerns about local and global climate impacts featured prominently in the Rocky Hill Mine decision, which made a big splash even if not a legal precedent.
Similarly, there have been heated debates about Dendrobium, Russell Vale and Metropolitan mines, which are all currently operating in the public water catchment that supplies over five million NSW residents. In the years leading up to the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people protested over several days, urging climate action. The students who led the climate strike wave are now young adults.
Fractures could be emerging in the ALP’s position.
After Labor and the Coalition agreed to overturn the Government’s own independent regulator’s rejection of the Dendrobium Mine last year, the multinational miner South32 stepped away from the 28-year expansion. Labor candidate for Heathcote Maryanne Stuart recently broke with the ALP’s position, stating that mining should not be allowed in the Sydney-Illawarra water catchment.
Contesting NSW Minister for Planning Anthony Roberts for the seat of Lane Cove, teal Independent Victoria Davidson also spoke at the PHAA’s pre-election debate, arguing that NSW “needs to take its climate action commitments seriously and stop all new coal and gas projects”.
If elected, Ms Davidson committed to pushing Government to apply a climate lens to all decisions.
Like the climate crisis, collective health is complex and requires whole-of-system action. Good climate policy is prevention. We know what we need to do.
Rachel Rowe is completing her PhD at UNSW School of Population Health and serves on the NSW PHAA Branch Committee.
Patrick Harris is Director of the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research & Evaluation (CHETRE), Part of the UNSW Australia Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity, and past-President NSW PHAA. He is the author of ‘Illuminating Policy for Health: Insights From a Decade of Researching Urban and Regional Planning’.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on the NSW election and health. On Twitter, follow #NSWvoteshealth2023