Where’s the data? Calls to end Government ‘climate censorship’

18.12.17 By
This article is more than 6 years old

THE CLIMATE COUNCIL is calling for the backlog of Australia’s greenhouse gas pollution data to be urgently released, with the Federal Government failing to provide an update for almost 6 months.

Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie said the Federal Government had again delayed the release of the latest quarterly data report, highlighting the current state of Australia’s pollution levels (June 2017 quarter), after a rise of 1.6 per cent was recorded back in March.

“At a time when Australia’s federal climate and energy policy remains in limbo, it has never been more important for transparent pollution information. Continuing to keep the information hidden just raises questions about what there is to hide,” she said.

“For several years, there’s been a consistent delay from the Department of the Environment and Energy’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory on releasing vital emissions data. This raises serious concerns over the Federal Government’s transparency on Australia’s pollution levels.

“The only way the public can keep the government accountable on climate progress is if they have transparent processes for releasing emissions data.”

McKenzie said the clear solution to tackling Australia’s rising pollution levels was the urgent rollout of strong climate and energy policy, supporting the transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewable energy and storage technology.

“In 2017 alone, we’ve already seen mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, along with extreme heatwave events and supercharged storms. Meanwhile national policy debate on climate and energy policy is happening in the absence of the latest pollution data.

“How can Australia implement new climate and energy policy, without our politicians taking our rising pollution levels into account? Any further delays on releasing this information can only amount to climate censorship.

For more information please contact Media Advisor Alexia Boland on 0430 511 068.