In the front half of 2019, radio shock jock and Sky News commentator Alan Jones — aided by former prime ministerial chief of staff Peta Credlin — went on a bizarre tirade about climate change. In this rant, Jones used a bowl of rice to make a point regarding the supposed insignificance of Australia's carbon emissions on a global scale. Key to his argument is the fact that Australia produces less than two per cent of the world's carbon emissions.
Jones' segment was roundly mocked for his strange analogising, but his attitude — that Australia is too small to make a difference on carbon emissions — is shared by many. It puts him in good company with, for example, Emissions Reduction Minister Angus 'Fantastic, Great Move' Taylor and a minor political player called Scott Morrison (you may have heard of him).
Like all good misleading claims, there is a grain of truth to be found here: it is true that if Australia were the only country in the world to reduce its carbon emissions, there would be no chance of slowing anthropogenic climate change.
This line of thinking has been countered by many — including satirist Charlie Pickering in a masterful parody of Jones' own hot take — who observe that around 40 per cent of the world's carbon emissions are produced by countries with similar outputs to Australia. Collectively these countries can make a significant difference if each reduces their carbon emissions. Additionally, Australia is notoriously one of the largest emitters of carbon per capita in the world, a number made much worse when taking into account our coal exports.
That said, while Australia can definitely make a difference as part of a collective effort, our real ability to effect change actually lies elsewhere.
Australia quite proudly punches above its weight in many arenas, yet we are failing to take a leadership role in debating climate change. Despite the bluster and jingoism of many conservative pundits on our ability to compete internationally in other fields, Australia's capacity to influence global climate policy is frequently downplayed by the current government and their journalistic allies.
Even worse than supposed irrelevance, however, is Australia's active scuttling of international efforts to tackle climate change. The clearest case in point comes from the COP25 conference last year, where Australia was one of the few hold-outs on coming to an agreement for a new global carbon market. Though we were not