In remorseless, greed-driven commitment to climate racism and climate criminality, Australia ignores top German climate change scientists who estimated in 2009 that the world must emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) before 2050 if it is to have a reasonable chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise. Australia 's annual domestic plus exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is so high that it exceeded its “:fair share” of this terminal GHG pollution budget by mid-2011. Worse still, Australia 's commitment to unlimited gas, coal and iron ore exports means that it is committed to polluting the atmosphere with over 3 times the world's total terminal GHG pollution budget. Australia 's annual domestic plus exported per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is about 70 times greater than the annual per capita GHG pollution of acutely climate change-threatened Bangladesh…
In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 Gt CO2 (600 billion tonnes CO2) between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050. Australia 's high domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution means that Australia would use of its “fair share” of this global terminal GHG pollution budget within 3.4 years. However Australia's huge coal, gas and iron ore exports and its consequently high annual domestic plus exported GHG pollution mean that in 2010 alone Australia used up 1,708 x 100/1,960 = 87% of its “fair share” of the world's terminal 2010-2050 GHG pollution budget and, on current projections, in 2020 alone it will use up 4.3 times its “fair share”.
However Australia's commitment to climate racism and climate injustice goes even further because the major parties (the Liberal-National Party Coalition and the Labor Party, aka the Lib-Labs or Liberal-Laborals) are committed to the same derisory, Business As Usual (BAU) policy of “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” coupled with unlimited export of coal, gas and iron ore of which Australia has huge resources.
Australia's “economic demonstrated resources” of iron ore total 24 billion tonnes, this corresponding after industrial steel making to 16.7 billion tonnes CO2 or 2.8% of the world's terminal GHG pollution budget, noting that Australia has only 0.3% of the World's population. Exploitation of Australia's presently discovered conventional and unconventional gas resources would generate 61.5 billion tonnes of CO2-e or about 10% of the world's terminal GHG pollution budget of 600 billion tonnes CO2, noting that Australia's “fair share” is only 2.0 billion tonnes CO2-e. However, CO2 from combustion of Australia's huge coal resource potential of 1 trillion tonnes of coal would be an estimated 692.7 Gt CO2 (from brown coal) plus 1,073.9 Gt CO2 (from black coal) for a total of 1,766.6 Gt CO2 i.e. 1,766.6 billion tonnes CO2 or 294.4% (2.9 times) the world's terminal pollution budget of 600 billion tonnes of CO2 (see Gideon Polya, “Australia 's Huge Coal, Gas & Iron Ore Exports Threaten Planet”, Countercurrents, 15 May 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150512.htm ).