UN climate-czar abuses Australia, cossets leviathan China

Juiced by Australian resource-exports, China's massive development-surge shot its CO2 emissions past the US, at the turn of this century. Today's world emissions-graphs say China first and daylight second.

Despite our upper-class legions of trusting China-doves, the US is inextricably our main defence ally. Ironically, they've genuinely reduced their emissions this century. Horrors, by switching from coal to gas.

UN climate-action is still a "no-brainer", Stiell insisted, don't risk a "bog-standard" 2035 target. But Stiell, Climate Minister Chris Bowen, anyone really, can see Australia will fall well short of present targets, never mind cranking up the virtue.

Stiell bragged of reading the riot-act to Turkey. So, there's immense pressure on China, right?

Hardly. As China can see, it's kid gloves. The UN cossets China with 17 symbolic Sustainable Development Goals, number 13 being "climate-action" motherhood. Stiell's own speeches in or of China are deferential – technocratic fluff.

Despite this UN indulgence, educated folks at our Superpower Institute, at US Harvard and UK Oxford, trust the fairy-story. China's runaway "electrification of everything" will also see it reaching its net-zero nirvana by "2060".

"This requires open international trade," instructs Superpower's Ross Garnaut, "with China supplying equipment to and drawing zero-emissions semi-processed goods from abroad."

Zero-emissions goods, Ross, only exist in your imagination. And why should your mate China get the pole position for generous growth and consumption?

Global net-zero is "difficult but not impossible" the guru concludes. My money's staying on impossible.

Anyone old enough to have dodged Australia's UN-friendly educational system should figure that global population/consumption/GDP/emissions/CO2/temperatures aren't Stiell-compliant. They keep on rising.

If emissions-minnow Australia really cared, it would quit its rapid population growth, also the relentless logging and land-clearing. Not happening.

That Oxford don is swooning, at the inexplicable magic of net-zero's "sensitive intervention-points" in "socio-economic systems". His is a cult for the top 1-20%, no beneficial program for the masses.