Australia v the climate

Cop26 brought together 190 countries in the hope they would finally agree to bring the climate crisis under control. But despite the urgency, Australia’s status as a climate laggard was on full display. With the Glasgow pact in place, will the government do anything it has agreed to?

Right before Cop26, then Australian prime minister Scott Morrison finally released what he said was a plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But was it? In this episode, editor Lenore Taylor, political editor Katharine Murphy, climate and environment editor Adam Morton and reporter Graham Readfearn discuss the implications of ‘the Australian way’ plan and what it means for Cop26 in Glasgow

Year after year, parts of our country are destroyed by floods and bushfires made worse by global heating. And yet multiple prime ministers have lost their jobs when they tried to do something about it. What’s behind Australia’s weak climate targets and its lack of ambition? In part four, we explore the powerful fossil fuel lobbies and how have they influenced Australia’s climate policy over the decades. Including: author Clive Hamilton, former Australian Greens leader Christine Milne, former minister for climate change Greg Combet, Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor, director of policy at the Investor Group on Climate Change Erwin Jackson, scientist Graeme Pearman, and Union of Concerned Scientists member Alden Meyer.

Six years after the devastation of the Copenhagen meetings, the Paris conference became a hopeful moment for action on climate change. It looked for a moment that a truly global deal would be made. Hope was short-lived for Australia, as the reins of power changed quickly from Malcolm Turnbull to Scott Morrison, a pro-coal prime minister with no real commitment to climate policy. You’ll hear the story first-hand from the people who were there, including: former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull; former prime minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga; Guardian Australia editor, Lenore Taylor; Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy; climate campaigner Erwin Jackson; climate scientist Lesley Hughes; chief negotiator on climate for Tuvalu, Ian Fry; and head of Greenpeace International, Jennifer Morgan

After Kevin Rudd becomes prime minister in 2007 he decides to turn his full attention to helping the world tackle the climate crisis. But for all the work Australia puts in, the world takes a turn for the worst at the climate summit in Copenhagen. In the second episode in the series, we ask: what could happen if Australia decides to be a good global citizen on climate?

This is the story of how Australia’s behaviour across decades has made it a climate change outcast. In the first episode we hear how Australia managed to increase its emissions under a climate deal that was supposed to cut them