Climate Criminal Australia’s False Net Zero Plan To Deceive World & Pacific For COP31
By Dr Gideon Polya
Lying occurs in 2 forms, lying by omission and lying by commission. Lying by omission is far, far worse than repugnant lying by commission because the latter at least permits public refutation and public debate. The Gaza Genocide-complicit, and climate criminal Australian Labor Government shamelessly lies by omission and by commission in its Net Zero Plan, hoping to deceive voters, the world and the climate change-threatened Pacific nations to host COP31 in 2026.
The anti-science, effective climate change denialist through inaction, and Gaza Genocide-complicit Australian Coalition Opposition is divided over whether there should even be a Net Zero by 2050 Plan. The Labor Government and the Coalition have similar dishonest policies on Australia’s huge Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Exports but only Labor wants to make inroads on Domestic GHG emissions.
The world is existentially threatened by nuclear weapons and climate change. Unfortunately Australia under either Labor or the Coalition is a fervent supporter of nuclear terrorist America and hence of US-backed and nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel which for nearly 2 years has been using US-supplied weapons and bombs to destroy Gaza and mass murder Gazans. Through its abject failure to take concrete action to stop the killing , 2-way arms deals and cowardly diplomacy a Zionist-perverted Australia is shamefully complicit in the Gaza Genocide (an estimated 680,000 “deaths from violence and deprivation” (Google this phrase) by 25 April 2025, Day 569 of the Gaza Massacre). While Labor wants to take some action over Domestic GHG emissions, a large proportion of Coalition MPs agree with absurdly anti-science President Donald Trump that climate change is a “con”.
As sketched below, the Labor Government’s “Net Zero Plan” for “62-70% off 2005 Domestic GHG emissions by 2035” and thence “net zero emissions by 2050” is highly deficient and a dishonest attempt to deceive Australian voters and Pacific Island Nations that it hopes to partner in hosting the COP31 Climate Conference in 2026.
Falsehood #1. The “Net Zero Plan” addresses the global policy agreed to at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference for net zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) pollution by 2020 in order to avoid a damaging plus 1.5C temperature rise. The Australian Labor Government lies by commission in the first 8 words of the “Net Zero Plan”: “The Australian Government is acting on climate change” (p2 [1]. Thus the Australian Labor Government has been mis-ruling Australia since May 2022, but as clearly shown in Figure 1 of the Plan, in those 40 months Australia’s Domestic GHG pollution has actually increased, this breaking a massive overall trend of decreasing Domestic GHG pollution by Australia since 2005, including 9 years of rule by the anti-science and substantially climate change denialist Coalition (Figure 1, p4 [1]).
This climate inaction by the mendacious Australian Labor Government is in stark contrast to the climate crisis facing the world. Humanity and the Biosphere are existentially threatened by nuclear weapons and climate change. Eminent physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has stated the problems and solutions very succinctly: “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” [2-4]. A paper co-signed by over 11,000 scientists has detailed trends in 24 climate-related areas over the last 40 years. Scientists became aware of the climate change threat from GHG pollution in the 1980s, but in 21 of these 24 areas the trends are (a) huge, (b) in the wrong direction, and (c) linear or quasi-linear functions of time, with this allowing extrapolation from the present climate emergency to a climate catastrophe in 2030 [5-9].
Notwithstanding lots of mendacious political rhetoric from the likes of the lying Australian Labor Government, the world is simply not taking effective action on GHG emissions. Thus the Trump-threatened US NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) reports that atmospheric GHGs CO2, CH4, N2O and SF6 are at record highs and increasing at record high rates (CO2, N2O and SF6) or at a near-record high rate (CH4)[10]. Tackling climate change means decreasing atmospheric GHGs, not increasing atmospheric GHGs. There is no decrease in record atmospheric GHGs , nor in global gas, oil, coal, cattle, cement and steel production [11]. There are 9 key tipping points in the worsening climate crisis, namely the (1). West Antarctica (Amundsen Sea embayment), (2). East Antarctic ice sheet (Wilkes Basin), (3). Greenland ice sheet, (4.) Arctic sea ice, (5). Coral reefs,(6) Amazon rain rainforest, (7). North American boreal forest), (8). Arctic permafrost, and the (9). Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) [12]. Increasing ocean temperature means increased evaporation and thence increased precipitation, high energy storms, floods and storm surges. Increased temperature also means increased drought and forest fires. Just from the nightly news the man-in-the-street is aware of local and global events due to the present plus 1.5C temperature , namely record floods, storms, forest fires and droughts. Positive feedback loops are exacerbating these effects.
The decent, pro-Planet Greens and Socialists aside, all that Western political parties are fundamentally interested in is votes, and for fossil fuel-beholden parties like the Centre-Right Labor and Right-Far Right Coalition in Australia that means shameless lying.
Falsehood #2. The next egregious falsehood occurs in the Forward of the “Net Zero Plan”. The Climate Change Authority has provided its independent, expert advice to the Australian Government on setting a target for 2035. A target of “62-70% emissions reduction off the 2005 value by 2035” they advise: “‘is in Australia’s national and economic interest. Committing to an ambitious target is necessary to maximise the chances of Australia capturing the full potential benefits of the global clean energy transition.’ ‘is ambitious, achievable, in Australia’s national interest, and is based on robust analysis of the best available evidence. It anchors Australia’s commitment to the global goal of pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, the threshold beyond which multiple climate systems risk irreversible breakdown.’ We have accepted their advice and Australia’s 2035 target is 62-70% below 2005 levels by 2035” (p2 [1]).
Unfortunately efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C appear to have failed already. Thus Australian climate change analyst David Spratt (co-author with Philip Sutton of “Climate Code Red” [13]): “We are already at 1.5°C. In 2018, the IPCC mid-range projected year for the world to warm to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels was 2040. But a new World Meteorological Organization report this year indicates that Earth will cross this point in just two years, with a “70% chance that the 2025-2029 five-year mean will exceed 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average”. In fact, 2023 was 1.5°C and 2024 reached 1.6°C, and the running average for the last 24 months has been close to 1.6°C. A new paper (currently in pre-print) shows that for one temperature data set, the warming trend reached 1.5°C in 2024, and four other data sets show 2026. For all practical purposes, the warming trend has hit 1.5°C, as James Hansen has noted: “Averaged over the El Nino/La Nina cycle, the 1.5°C limit has been reached”. This is also consistent with the CMIP6 model projections (Figure 2, produced by Zeke Hausfather)” (Figure 2, p6 [14]).
Professor James Hansen(Columbia) is a leading climate scientist and author of “Storms Around My Grandchildren” [17]. Likewise James Hansen and colleagues (2024): “The 1.5C global warming ceiling has been passed for all practical purposes because the large planetary energy imbalance assures that global temperature is heading still higher” [15, 16]. James Hansen et al (2024): “Thus, the next year may provide a wake-up call: global temperature will remain above +1.5 °C at the end of 2024 and, at most, barely fall below +1.5 °C in 2025… A declining solar irradiance may dampen warming for several years, but global warming in the next two decades is likely to be about 0.2-0.3 °C per decade, leading to global temperature +2 °C by 2045” [17].
In stark contrast, the “Net Zero Plan” assesses Australia’s annual Domestic GHG emissions in financial year 2023-2024 at 521 Mt CO2-e and then subtracts 74 Mt CO2-e as “land net sequestration of CO2” to yield GHG emissions of 447 Mt CO2-e (p28 [1]). Thus the “Net Zero Plan” with Orwellian absurdity subtracts annual sequestration of CO2 by vegetation not destroyed by land clearance, a claimed negative contribution of 74 Mt CO2-e .
In reality Australian is among world leading countries for land clearing [26-29]. Trees Down Under: “According to records, the continent ranked first for mammal extinctions globally and second for biodiversity loss, damaging an average of 416,840 hectares of forestry yearly. It’s surprising that only Australia is on this list among other developed nations… The Global Forest Watch reports in 2019 showed Australia has lost 800,000 hectares of tree cover. It was the country’s second-highest annual loss recorded in history. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) also revealed that the country holds one of the developed nations’ highest deforestation rates. Since European settlement, around 40% of Australia’s woodlands and forests have been destroyed… Burning or destroying trees leads to emissions of the stored carbon into the environment. According to the Australian Academy of Science, deforestation accounts for about 8% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, land clearing in Australia results in carbon emissions that are nearly one-third of all emissions produced by coal-fired power plants in the entire country. If native forest logging emissions are considered, the percentage equals at least half of the carbon pollution produced by all Australian coal-fired power plants” [26].
Thus the “Net Zero Plan” subtracts 74 Mt CO2-e from Australia’s asserted 521 Mt CO2-e of annual Domestic GHG emissions instead of adding 0.08 x 521 = 42 Mt CO2-e [26]. Subtracting 74 Mt CO2-e as “land net sequestration of CO2” from Australia’s annual GHG emissions (p28 [1]) is like subtracting “cloud cover” from assessment of annual greenhouse contributions.
Professors Brendan Mackey and David Lindenmeyer: “ The best outcome — for both climate and biodiversity — is to end native forest logging altogether. This conserves forest biodiversity like koalas and countless other species (such as the Endangered Southern Greater Glider), while preventing substantial emissions. It would also reduce fire risk. This is because logged forests are more flammable than intact forests for up to 70 years after harvesting. Most economists agree that the most cost-effective market mechanism to reduce fossil fuel emissions is through a carbon price” [27]. David Lindenmeyer on the threatened Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain Ash) old growth forests of South East Australia: “ Mountain Ash forests are some of the most carbon-dense forests in the world, with older forests characterized by substantially higher levels of above-ground biomass carbon than younger aged forests”[28]. The Australian Greens: “More than 1 million hectares of native bush and forest has been cleared in Queensland over the last four years. Land clearing in Queensland is now on par with Brazil” [29].
Figure 3.1: “Australia’s emissions by sector” (p28 [1]) gives the breakdown of the total of 447 Mt CO2-e of Australian Domestic GHG emissions for the various sectors: Transport (22%), Built Environment (5%), Electricity and Energy (34%), Resources (22%), Industry (14%) and Agriculture (19%). However while 100% renewable energy with hydrological and battery back-up, and adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) are immediately quite feasible, there are big problems with other areas (succinctly indicated in brackets as follows): Built environment (CO2 from cement production), Resources (CH4 leakage), Industry (present CH4 dependence), and Agriculture (CH4 and N2O emissions and CO2 from forest fires). The Australian Labor Government’s cowardly and climate criminal commitment to huge Exported GHG emissions does not augur well for its ability and willingness to achieve “62-70% off 2005 GHG emissions by 2035” (much too weak according to the Greens) and indeed “net zero by 2050”.
Falsehood #5.The Plan states “Some areas of the economy can’t electrify because the right technologies don’t exist yet, or they’re currently too expensive. High heat manufacturing, like making steel and cement, and long-distance transport by road, air and sea, are hard to electrify right now” (p9 [1]). It is not the “high heat” (that can be delivered renewably) but the CO2 from cement manufacture that is the problem. Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) of CO2 at the industrial source is a potential solution but CCS has yet to be applied on a large scale, as evidenced by the reality that atmospheric CO2 is at a record high and increasing at a record high rate [10, 11].
Falsehood #6. The Plan implies that exports of renewable energy could act as compensatory Carbon Credits for CO2 emissions elsewhere (e.g. p9 [1]) but that, while satisfying accountants, merely shifts the problem elsewhere – the CO2 still has to be removed from the atmosphere.
Falsehood #7. Figure 3.2, “Percentage change in emissions by sector since June 2005” (p24 [1]) does not inspire confidence that “62-70% off 2005 Domestic GHG emissions by 2035” (in 10 years’ time) or indeed “net zero by 2050” (in 25 years’ time) will be achievable. Thus over the last 20 years emissions from resources, built environment and transport have increased substantially , and emissions from industry, electricity and agriculture have only decreased slightly (p24 [1]). Given typically desired Australian economic growth rates of circa 3% pa and a population growth rate of about 2% pa, there is no inkling over the last 20 years of any future major reduction in GHG emissions. The science-informed Australian Greens say that “62-70% off 2005 Domestic GHG emissions by 2035” is not strong enough. The anti-science, Right-Far Right, and climate change denialist through inaction Coalition politicians are opposed to this “Net Zero Plan”, many are opposed to “Net Zero by 2050” and many are just plain knuckle-dragging climate change denialists.
Falsehood #8. Climate criminal Australia is among world leaders in land clearance and Exported GHG emissions via exports of gas, coal and iron ore. Australia with 0.33 % of the world’s population has annual Domestic plus Exported GHG emissions that are 5.4% of the world’s total. The Island Nations of the Pacific (and indeed all tropical and semi-tropical Island Nations and all low-lying countries) are already suffering the consequences of global warming (sea level rise, high energy storms and storm surges) and are seriously threatened by climate change. US lackey Australia is America’s “deputy sheriff” in the region and regards the South Pacific as its traditional “patch”. Australia can hand out relatively large sums to poor Pacific Island Nations who maintain great politeness (“The Pacific Way”) towards climate criminal Australia. Nevertheless as recognized by science-informed observers if not publicly by compromised governments, Australia with its huge fossil fuel and iron ore exports is a huge threat to the South Pacific Island Nations. The International Energy Agency (IAE) has demanded that for “Net zero by 2050”: “No new oil or gas fields approved for development; no new coal mines or mine extensions” [30]. However the Australian Labor Government has approved 11 new coal mines or expansions and there are 29 additional proposals for new or expanded coal mines currently awaiting Federal Government approval [31]. The climate criminal Australian Labor Government recently announced a major expansion of Woodside’s gas operations in Western Australia that will now operate until 2070 i.e. until 20 years after “Net zero by 2050” [32]. The “Net Zero Plan: “Australia is bidding to host the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) in 2026 in partnership with the Pacific” (p98 [1]). Granting COP31 to mendacious and climate criminal Australia would make a joke of the proceedings as have the previous granting of COP hosting rights to other countries with poor records on GHG emissions [33].
Falsehood #9. Chapter 13, “First Nations leadership in the transition” (pp 99- 103 [1]) is included in the “Net Zero Plan” for various reasons including “political correctness” to hide “past, present and emerging” crimes against Indigenous Australians. The Plan actually refers to “Regions such as the low-lying Torres Strait Islands are especially vulnerable to sea level rise” (p101 [1] – they are already suffering major flooding from sea level rise, are threatened by tropical cyclones and are actually existentially threatened by climate change [34]. The Plan notes: “Climate change on Country is already disrupting cultural practices and threatening the health, social and emotional wellbeing of communities. High temperatures risk delaying traditional ceremonies, bushfires and floods can damage Country including sacred sites, and extreme events are impacting community health, livelihoods and property” (p101 [1]). However there is no mention of the acute threat to remote Indigenous communities from deadly heat stress in the context of poor, over-crowded housing and insufficient electricity supply [35]. The Labor Government’s approval of the Woodside gas expansion threatens a huge and ancient Indigenous petrolith (rock art) treasure [36].
Falsehoods by omission through ignoring key items #10 - #40. The “Net Zero Plan” has been developed to enable Australia to “tackle climate change” and one would have supposed that major matters relating to man-made global warming would have been at least mentioned in passing. There is a Glossary of Terms (pp113-114 [1]) but many such key terms are absent. Key matters that crucially relate to the Climate Crisis, the looming Climate Genocide and numerous partial Solutions are simply missing from the “Net Zero Plan (see my huge book Gideon Polya, “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” [37]):
(1). Air pollution (Carbon pollution) from carbon fuel burning kills over 8 million people each year [38] with half dying from ambient (outdoor) air pollution) [39]. This mortality is due to exposure to nitrogen oxides (N2O and NO2) and particularly from fine particulate matter (e.g. PM10, PM2.5) which causes cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers [40]. Australia’s response to the IMF demand to adopt a modest $75 per tonne CO2-e Carbon Price (see below) to save 4 million lives by 2030 was a simple “No” [41, 42]. A general principle of national law and the Natural Law is that people are recompensed in full for damage done to them by others but this is rejected in relation to deadly Air pollution (Carbon pollution) by the Australian Mainstream (except notably for the science-informed Australian Greens, Socialists and increasing adoption of electric vehicles). My detailed formal complaint about this to the Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission (NAAC) was rejected [43-45].
(2). Atmospheric GHGs include CO2 (carbon dioxide) , CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), H2O (water) and man-made GHGs such as SF6 [37].
(3). Bush fires (see Forest fires).
(4). Carbon budget is a term describing the amount of GHG emissions that can occur before a plus 1.5C of warming is reached. Because plus 1.5C of warming was exceeded in 2024, the world’s Carbon budget has actually been used up [13-16].
(5). Carbon Debt is the full damage-related cost of climate change. The world has an inescapable $200-250 trillion global Carbon Debt that is increasing by $16 trillion annually. Australia is among world-leading climate criminal countries in 16 areas. Corporations, governments and Mainstream media conspire to fraudulently and corruptly ignore Australia’s huge and inescapable Carbon Debt that totals (USD) about $5 trillion, is increasing at up to about $0.7 trillion each year, and at $69,000 per head per year for under-30 year old Australians [46-48].
(6). Carbon pollution (see Air pollution).
(7). Carbon Price is the damage-related cost of climate change from GHG emissions and about $200 per tonne CO2 [49, 50]. The average global applied Carbon Price is $2 per tonne CO2 [41, 42]. Application of the full Carbon Price is crucial for solving the Climate crisis. Indeed science-trained Pope Francis demanded that the environmental and social cost of pollution be “fully borne” by the polluters [51-54], and eminent economist Lord Nicholas Stern has described failure to do so as a “market failure” [55].
(8). Climate change denialists are those who - like anti-science, anti-health science, anti-universities, and anti-reason fool Donald Trump and his intellectually challenged supporters - reject the science of man-made climate change.
(9). Climate crisis refers to the existential threat to Humanity and the Biosphere posed by man-made global warming [37].
(10). Climate Genocide refers to mass deaths from intentional GHG emissions. It is estimated by several leading climate scientists that 10 billion people may perish this century due to catastrophic man-made global warming en route to a sustainable human population of only about 1 billion by 2100 [37, 56-59].
(11). Climate engineering (see Geoengineering).
(12). Climate intervention (see Geoengineering).
(13). Cyclones (Hurricanes, Typhoons) are extremely damaging, high energy tropical storms with intensities increased by climate change-derived energy input. The Australian Climate Council: “Climate change is increasing the destructive power of tropical cyclones. All weather events today, including tropical cyclones, are occurring in an atmosphere that is warmer, wetter, and more energetic than in the past. It is likely that maximum windspeeds and the amount of rainfall associated with tropical cyclones is increasing. Climate change may also be affecting many other aspects of tropical cyclone formation and behaviour, including the speed at which they intensify, the speed at which a system moves (known as translation speed), and how much strength is retained after reaching land – all factors that can render them more dangerous. In addition, rising sea levels mean that the storm surges that accompany tropical cyclones are even more damaging. While climate change may mean fewer tropical cyclones overall, those that do form can become more intense and costly. In other words, we are likely to see more of the really strong and destructive tropical cyclones” [60].
(14). Damage-related Carbon Price (see Carbon Price).
(15). Deforestation (see Land clearing).
(16). Domestic GHG emissions. The “Net Zero Plan” totally ignored Australia’s huge Exported GHGs and thus the only GHG emissions considered were Domestic GHG emissions.
(17). Drought is exacerbated by global warming and is predicted to increase in severity in Southern Australia.
(18). Exported GHGs, notably exported gas and coal that generate CO2 on combustion, and exported iron ore (iron oxide) that generates CO2 on reduction by carbon.
(19). Externalities refer to economic components often not considered in the market price, and most shockingly so is the damage due to global warming that is conveniently ignored by the greed-driven market. Lord Stern has described this ignoring of the global warming externality as “the greatest market failure”: “The problem of climate change involves a fundamental failure of markets: those who damage others by emitting greenhouse gases generally do not pay. Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen. The evidence on the seriousness of the risks from inaction or delayed action is now overwhelming. We risk damages on a scale larger than the two world wars of the last century. The problem is global and the response must be a collaboration on a global scale” [55].
(20). Floods arise from excessive precipitation. Warming of oceans yields greater evaporation and thence greater precipitation. Flash floods occur with huge precipitation in a short time in a small area [60].
(21). Forest fires are exacerbated by drought, high temperature and increased inflammable ground cover and dead trees. NASA: “Earth's warming climate is amplifying wildland fire activity, particularly in northern and temperate forests” [63].
(22). Fugitive emissions refer to gas (mainly methane, CH4) leaking from mines, anaerobic swamps and from extraction and reticulation infrastructure. Huge gas leakage was essentially ignored in the “Net Zero Plan”.
(23). Gas leakage (see Fugitive emissions)
(24). Geoengineering refers to (potentially dangerous) large-scale environmental changes to minimize global warming (e.g. fertilizing oceans to increase CO2 fixation by photosynthetic organisms, and atmospheric sulphate aerosols and white surfaces to reflect solar radiation) [64].
(25). Global average applied Carbon Price: it is sadly $2 per tonne CO2 whereas the actual damage-related Carbon Price is $200 per tonne CO2 [41, 42, 49, 50].
(26) Global Warming Potential (GWP) is strangely missing from the Glossary but not from the “Net Zero Plan”. The GWP is the global warming potential relative to that of the same mass of CO2. For CH4 the GWP-20 (over 20 years) is 105 [19] whereas the GWP-100 is 28 [1].
(27). Heat deaths are more prevalent at high temperatures and with older people [35, 65-68]. Thus 15,000 people died in a European heat wave [67]. Some Indian cities have recently registered temperatures approaching or exceeding 50C [68].
(28). Heat stress is deadly[35, 65-68] and is particularly suffered by older people whose “brain heat stress signal” decays more rapidly than for young people [65].
(29). Hurricanes (see Cyclones).
(30). International Energy Association (IAE) demands that seriously tackling climate change means no new fossil fuel extraction projects [69-71]. The climate criminal Coalition Opposition is committed to expanding gas and coal exploitation [69]. The present climate criminal Labor Government ignores Australia’s huge Exported GHG pollution and supports many new coal and gas extraction projects [71]. Climate Action Tracker: “Australia still lacks federal-level strategy, plans or committed timelines for a transition away from coal and fossil gas as agreed at the first Global Stocktake at COP28. Instead, the government has continued to approve coal and gas projects. Seven new coal mine projects in 2023 and 2024 will allow coal mining and exports to continue for decades to come. Shortly after returning to power in May 2025, it approved a 40 year lifetime extension to Woodside Energy’s massive North West Shelf LNG Plant, allowing it to operate until 2070 – decades beyond the point when Australia is meant to have reached net zero. The facility will be able to essentially triple its historical emissions. This is incompatible with the Paris Agreement’s goals and with the government’s emission reduction commitments. As the third largest fossil fuel exporter, Australia’s exported emissions were already more than two times its total domestic emissions in 2022, and its exported emissions almost doubled between 2010 and 2022. Together with domestic emissions, its total GHG footprint adds to about 4.5% of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions” [71].
(31). Inundation (see Carbon Debt). Tropical Island Nations and other low-lying countries are acutely threatened by man-made climate change and attendant sea level rise, high energy storms, and inundating storm surges [2, 60, 72]. Carbon Debt is powerfully illustrated by the reality that if hugely expensive sea walls are not built by future generations then coastal land, towns and cities will be inundated by sea level rise and storm surges.
(32). Land clearing. Australia is among world leaders for speciescidal and ecocidal land clearing and deforestation [26-29].
(33). Methane bomb threat: The world faces a worsening climate emergency due to global warming from ever-increasing atmospheric pollution with greenhouse gases (GHGs) of which the most important are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), noting that the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CH4 is 28 times that of CO2 on a 100 year time frame but is 105 times greater than that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and taking atmospheric aerosol impacts into account [19]. As much as 1,700 Gt CH4 is in the Arctic tundra. Huge stores of CH4 as water-methane (H2O-CH4) clathrates in the Arctic tundra permafrost and on the Arctic Ocean sea bed may be released in coming decades due to global warming, with this release involving a disastrous positive feedback loop in which global warming causes CH4 release, thence more global warming and consequently even more CH4 release. CH4 is already being released from the melting Arctic tundra due to the metabolism of anaerobic bacteria [73].
(34). Photosynthesis is at the heart of the climate change crisis and a partial solution. Thus the fossil fuel coal derives geologically from high temperature and pressure operating anaerobically on the cellulosic products of photosynthesis over hundreds of millions of years. Oil derives from the fatty acyl groups of lipids in such conditions. Methane derives from the action of anaerobic bacteria. The process of photosynthesis involves (a) Light reactions involving light-absorbing arrays and generating the cellular energy currency ATP and the reduced coenzyme NADPH, and (b) Dark Reactions involving CO2 fixation into 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PGA) catalyzed by the enzyme ribulose- bis-phosphate carboxylase (Rubisco) and then conversion of 3-PGA into larger sugars, notably glucose, and thence into the glucose polymer cellulose, with ATP and NADH being variously involved in these Dark Reactions (see Chapter 2 [74] and [75]). A partial solution to the climate crisis involves photosynthesis into cellulosic cell wall material (e.g. in the wood of trees and in soil material).
(35). Positive feedback mechanisms amplify global warming e.g. (i) warming -> tundra methane release -> more warming and (ii) Arctic sea ice melts -> solar radiation absorbed by black sea -> more ice melting .
(36). Storm surges are associated with cyclones and lead to coastal inundation.
(37). Sulphate aerosols form in the upper atmosphere due to oxidation of sulphur, reflect solar radiation and cause global dimming (this being a major proposed geoengineering approach).
(38). Tipping points beyond which changes are irreversible are approaching as the planet warms. 9 key tipping points relate to West Antarctica ice, East Antarctic ice sheet, Greenland ice sheet, Arctic sea ice, Coral reefs, Amazon rain rainforest, North American boreal forests, Arctic permafrost, and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
(39). Trading systems involving Carbon Credits are typically dubious and dishonest alternatives to polluters meeting the full damage-related cost of their GHG emissions.
(40). Typhoons (see Cyclones).
Final comments and conclusions.
For the world to achieve “zero net emissions by 2050” all countries must contribute. Australia must eliminate both its Domestic as well as its much larger Exported GHG emissions. However the cowardly and unprincipled Australian Labor Government is beholden to the big fossil fuel corporations and has chosen to increase Exported GHG emissions and only address Domestic GHG emissions and then only largely in the electricity and energy sector.
The World is existentially threatened by nuclear weapons and climate change [3, 4] but a cowardly, dishonest, irresponsible and egregiously climate criminal Australian Labor Government (as exposed here) has also tightly linked Australia with US state terrorism and nuclear terrorism, making Australia a base for thousands of US soldiers, global electronic spying for the US and Apartheid Israel (via Pine Gap in Central Australia), and American nuclear-armed submarines, surface ships and B52 bombers. The sorry moral compass of Australia is revealed by the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition (aka COALition) being shamefully complicit in the Gaza Genocide in 20 ways [76] and lying for Apartheid Israel in 35 ways [77- 79].
The Gaza Genocide has so far reduced ancient, populous and culturally super-important Gaza to rubble and caused 680,000 Gaza “deaths from violence and deprivation” (Google the phrase) by 25/4/25 (Day 569 of the Gaza Massacre) and 872,000 after 2 years, mostly children (Google 680,000 Gaza) [80, 81]. The cowardly, mendacious, US lackey, Zionist-perverted, Gaza Genocide-complicit and climate criminal Australian Labor Government is seeking (a) a seat on the UN Security Council and (b) to co-host the 2026 COP31 Climate Change conference with Pacific Island Nations. Properly informed decent people around the world must oppose and expose these dishonest endeavours by US lackey, climate criminal and Gaza Genocide-complicit Australia.
[1]. Australian Government, “Australia’s Net Zero Plan”: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/net-zero-report.pdf .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions”, Korsgaard Publishing, 2020.
[3]. Professor Stephen Hawking quoted in Will Dunham, “Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead”, Reuters, 22 January 2007: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN17314370 .
[4]. Stephen Hawking, “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”, John Murray, 2018, Chapter 7.
[5]. William Ripple et al.., “World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency”, BioScience, 5 November 2019: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806 .
[6]. Gideon Polya, “Extrapolating 11,000 scientists’ climate emergency warning to 2030 climate catastrophe”, Countercurrents, 14 November 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/11/extrapolating-11000-scientists-climate-emergency-warning-to-2030-catastrophe .)
[7]. William J. Ripple et al., 15,364 signatories from 184 countries, “World scientists’ warning to Humanity: a second notice”, Bioscience, 13 November 2017: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/bix125/4605229 .
[8]. Gideon Polya, “Over 15,000 scientists issue dire warning to humanity on catastrophic climate change and biodiversity loss”, Countercurrents, 20 November 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/20/over-15000-scientists-issue-dire-warning-to-humanity-on-catastrophic-climate-change-and-biodiversity-loss/ .
[10]. US NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, “Trends in CO2, CH4, N2O, SF6”, 2025: https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/ .
[11]. Gideon Polya, “Planet Doomed: No Decrease In Record GHGs & Gas, Oil, Coal, Cattle, Cement & Steel Production”, Countercurrents, 16 October 2022: https://countercurrents.org/2022/10/planet-doomed-no-decrease-in-record-ghgs-gas-oil-coal-cattle-cement-steel-production/ .
[12]. Timothy Lenton, Johan Rockstrom, Owen Gaffney, Stefan Rahmsorf, Katherine Richardson, Will Steffen and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, “Climate tipping points – too risky to bet against” , Nature 575, 592-595, 27 November 2019: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03595-0 .
[13]. David Spratt and Philip Sutton “Climate Code Red”, Scribe, 2008.
[14]. David Spratt, “Warming has reached 1.5°C. What does that mean for climate advocacy?”, Breakthrough, August 2025: https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/_files/ugd/148cb0_fb8d67e54f914f429dc989ac968327b9.pdf .
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[24]. Gideon Polya, “Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .
[25]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm .
[28]. David Lindenmeyer and Elle Bowd, “Critical Ecological Roles, Structural Attributes and Conservation of Old Growth Forest: Lessons From a Case Study of Australian Mountain Ash Forests”, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 12 May 2022: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2022.878570/full .
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[41]. International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Fiscal Monitor: how to mitigate climate change”. Executive Summary”, September 2019: file:///C:/Users/Gideon/AppData/Local/Temp/execsum-6.pdf .
[42]. Gideon Polya, “Australia Rejects IMF Carbon Tax & Preventing 4 Million Pollution Deaths By 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/australia-rejects-imf-carbon-tax-preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030/ .
[43]. Gideon Polya, “NACC Ignores Huge Australian War Crimes & Carbon Debt”, Dissident Voice, 4 October 2023: https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/10/nacc-ignores-huge-australian-war-crimes-carbon-debt/ .
[44]. Gideon Polya, “Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission Rejects Submissions Re Huge Australian War Crimes and Carbon Debt”, Countercurrents, 2 October 2023: https://countercurrents.org/2023/10/australian-national-anti-corruption-commission-rejects-submissions-re-huge-australian-war-crimes-and-carbon-debt/ .
[45]. Gideon Polya, “Submission To Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission: Corporations & Governments Ignore Huge Carbon Debt”, Countercurrents, 19 August 2023: https://countercurrents.org/2023/08/submission-to-australian-national-anti-corruption-commission-corporations-governments-ignore-huge-carbon-debt/ .
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[48]. “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .
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[51]. Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’”, 2015: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html .’
[52]. Gideon Polya, “Pope Francis Demands “Fully Borne” Cost of Pollution (Carbon Price) To Prevent “Millions Of Premature Deaths””, Countercurrents, 29 July, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290715.htm .
[53]. Gideon Polya, “Green Left Pope Francis Demands Climate Action “Without Delay” To Prevent Climate “Catastrophe””, Countercurrents, 10 August, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100815.htm .
[54]. Gideon Polya, “Western Mainstream Media Censor Green Left Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si’” Message For Urgent Action On Climate Change”, Countercurrents, 20 August, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya200815.htm .
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[73]. “Methane Bomb Threat”: https://sites.google.co/site/methanebombthreat/ .
[76]. Gideon Polya, “20 Ways Anti-Semitic Australian Labor Government Complicit In Jewish Israeli Gaza Genocide”, Countercurrents, 5 March 2024: https://countercurrents.org/2024/03/20-ways-anti-semitic-australian-labor-government-complicit-in-jewish-israeli-gaza-genocide/ .
[77]. Gideon Polya, “35 Zionist Media Lies, the Killing of Children, Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel”, Global Research, 24 November 2023: https://www.globalresearch.ca/35-zionist-lies-child-killing-neo-nazi-apartheid-israel/5841145 .
[78]. Gideon Polya, “Gaza Massacre: 35 Ways Zionist-perverted US, Australia & West Lie For Child-killing, Neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents, 23 November 2023: https://countercurrents.org/2023/11/gaza-massacre-35-ways-zionist-perverted-us-australia-west-lie-for-child-killing-neo-nazi-apartheid-israel/ .
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