26 October 2022

The Canberra Times published an article today by Janaline Oh on three things the Albanese government can do to reclaim a leadership role on global climate action. The first, signing the Global Methane Pledge, has already been announced. The second is to join the Glasgow Statement on International Public Support for the Clean Energy Transition, which would involve stopping public finance for overseas fossil fuel projects. The third is to commit a substantial increase in climate finance for developing countries, both to assist them in the transition to clean energy and to help them to adapt to the already devastating effects of climate change.

6 October 2022

Janaline Oh spoke at the Better Futures Forum on 6 October on seizing opportunities in a global green economy. Here are her speaking notes.

2 September 2022

The Canberra Times published an article by one of our members today entitled: "Australia's export job opportunities are in the global green economy". In this article, Janaline Oh describes the huge competitive advantage Australia has in energy intensive manufacturing for export, due to our abundant, cheap renewable energy. Janaline notes that high labour costs, high energy costs and high transport costs have historically focused Australia's trade strategy on exporting large quantities of raw material. She argues that while Australia's labour costs remain relatively high, our workers are also highly productive and Australia's future no longer involves high energy costs: it can produce abundant and cheap renewable energy.   She urges the government to accelerate the energy transition, and turn Australia into a clean energy export manufacturing powerhouse.

9 June 2022

The Fiji Times today published an article by Janaline Oh of Diplomats for Climate Action Now and Mahendra Kumar of Pacific Elders Voice entitled “PIF 2022: Opportunity to invigorate climate change action”, which proposes some additional steps the Albanese government can take in both domestic and international climate policy to restore its reputation in the Pacific islands region.

27 June 2022

Diplomats for Climate Action Now member Peter Hooton (former High Commissioner to Solomon Islands) published an article in the Lowy Interpreter titled: "Pacific labour mobility and the existential threat of climate change". In this article Peter writes that "the new Australian Labor government’s commitment to listen more closely to its island neighbours is welcome, as are its Pacific labour mobility initiatives". He argues that in addition to the Pacific Engagement Visa (capped at 3,000 visas annually) Australia should consider offering a new climate change quota beyond this cap for particularly vulnerable Pacific island states. This would signal a serious commitment to jointly addressing the challenges of climate change, especially for those states whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels. This idea builds on our Climate-Focused Foreign Policy for Australia, where we argued that the new Australian government should "commit to offering vulnerable Pacific Island nations a safe-refuge resettlement program for affected populations if their homelands become no longer habitable due to sea-level rise or other effects of climate change." This will be a difficult debate for Australia, but a debate that we need to have.

10 June 2022

Janaline Oh's article in the Canberra Times today, entitled National security and future prosperity rely on climate action, highlighted how Australia's failure to lead on climate issues has had a significant negative impact on our international reputation and national security.  Janaline is one of our more than 100 former Australian diplomats, development and trade specialists, calling on the government to take immediate, ambitious steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to restore Australia's international standing on this issue.  In the article, Janaline argues: "Climate change does not respect national borders. It is a global challenge requiring every nation to pull its weight. It is wrong to claim that, because only around 1.3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are released in Australia, what we do is irrelevant. Climate action by nations is a matter of political choice: Australia is a wealthy country with the resources to transform its economy and the innovation to do so in a way that we can profitably share with other countries".

28 May 2022

We wrote a letter to the 31st Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon Anthony Albanese MP, congratulating him on his election and welcoming his emphasis at the Quad meeting in Tokyo on the urgency of addressing climate change. We also welcomed Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong's restatement of Australia's commitment to the Boe Declaration of 2018 and the steps the government of Australia will take to meeting the challenge of climate change in the Pacific.

21st April 2022

Another important article titled Solomons security pact: Sogavare, China and Australia, written by our member Peter Hooton (former High Commissioner to Solomon Islands) was published today in the Lowy Interpreter. Peter emphasises that Australia's greatest foreign policy failure has actually been its failure to address climate change, which poses the gravest single threat to the future viability of Pacific island countries as sovereign states.

12th April 2022

We and four other groups of current and former professionals sent a joint open letter to the incoming Prime Minister of Australia calling on the incoming government to recognise climate change as an existential threat requiring immediate national mobilisation. You can read the letter here.

24th March 2022

An article entitled "Climate change in the Pacific - what Australia needs to do" by Dip4CAN member Peter Hooton, was published in the Lowy Interpreter. This article highlights that Pacific states have been frustrated and disappointed by Australia’s failure to address the issue which poses the gravest single threat to their future viability as sovereign states. Peter's article proposes Australia adopt a new climate diplomacy for the Pacific which recognises this threat and includes real and deep cuts to Australia’s emissions in the medium (2030) and longer (2050) terms; increases Australia's mitigation and adaptation support across the Pacific; and commits to assisting vulnerable Pacific island populations with viable resettlement options that are acceptable to them, if their homelands were to become uninhabitable.