ASEAN-Australia Special Summit must address climate crisis in the region: Oxfam
Oxfam Australia Media Release
As the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) -Australia Special Summit commences this week in Melbourne, Oxfam is calling for the Australian government and other world leaders attending to ramp up ambition to tackle the climate crisis in the region, beginning with an urgent phase out of Australia’s massive coal and gas exports, and an increase in climate finance flows to support the energy transition in the region.
Southeast Asia’s energy demand has increased by an average of 3% a year over the past two decades, and is projected to double by 2050. Australia is a substantial supplier of the region’s resource needs – almost $31 billion in exports, excluding crude petroleum in 2022 – and is expected to remain a long-term energy security partner for Southeast Asia.
Countries in the region have long been calling for countries like Australia to support ASEAN countries to respond to climate impacts and transition their economies away from fossil fuels. ASEAN member countries are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with floods, droughts and storms wreaking havoc across the region and leaving women, Indigenous communities and vulnerable groups displaced and devastated. However, Australia continues to export coal and gas to the region and deliver climate finance well below its fair share.
As the world’s third largest exporter of coal and gas, Australia bears high responsibility for accelerating the climate crisis. Australia and its fossil fuel exports are amplifying carbon emissions, and keeping ASEAN countries locked into dangerous, fossil fuel-dependent futures, instead of leading Just Energy Transition efforts both here and in the region.
Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Lyn Morgain said nations such as Australia needed to step up and play their part to respond to the climate crisis.
“Those who have contributed least to the crisis are the most at threat – women, youth, Indigenous peoples, our neighbours in the region. This is not fair. It’s time to change this by putting fairness at the centre of our climate change response.
“The path ahead will be challenging, but it is an imperative choice. The negative impacts of staying invested in coal and gas exports will be much higher. It is time for Australia to redirect its trajectory, become a renewable energy leader and a long-term Just Energy Transition partner for ASEAN, rather than a peddler of outdated and dangerous energy sources,” she said.
Oxfam is calling for Australia to stop all new fossil fuel projects immediately. They are also asking the Australian government to:
- Commit to an urgent phase out of Australia’s massive coal and gas exports to ASEAN and transition to become a leader in sustainable renewable energy.
- Stop subsidising fossil fuels and redirect these resources for climate action including adaptation and support for a Just Energy Transition in Australia and ASEAN.
- Provide new and additional climate finance to support climate-vulnerable ASEAN countries respond to the impacts of climate change and accelerate the energy transition process.
- Increase transparency on climate risk assessment of all engagements and projects with ASEAN.
- Promote the inclusion of civil society organisations that represent the rights, interests and voices of women, youth, Indigenous and vulnerable communities in the collaboration with ASEAN.
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Canguro
Return to home pageThe modal verb ‘must’ often gets an outing given its imperative nature; not that I have much direct experience in this area but I’d expect parents use it a fair bit with recalcitrant children, other figures of authority too. Other modal verbs also play into the equation, ones like ‘should,’ ‘ought to,’ ‘have to.’ They tend to have an air of obligation about them, whether used in the first or third person sense; as in, for example, ‘I ought to quit screwing my neighbour’s wife,’ or ‘my kids should quit wasting money on junk food.’
The New York based psychotherapist Albert Ellis, notably remembered for being the founder of REBT (rational emotive behavior therapy) coined the term ‘musturbation’ as a signal warning that overuse of modal verbs and in particular but not exclusively in reference to oneself has the capacity to lead one into neurosis through the identification with the implied connotations of these words, for example, a thought along the lines of ‘I should give up drinking, it’s not doing me any good; I will, I must stop soon,’ when countered by the habitual willingness to keep hitting the bottle can lead to deeply damaging self-recrimination that is devoid of insight into the mechanics of language and its consequences.
Nonetheless, we English-language speakers are in love with our modal verbs, and they have their place, used carefully and judiciously. Who could possibly disagree with Oxfam’s edict that the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit must address the climate crisis in the region? Or António Guterres when he says the world must reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
They have their place indeed. Again, who could possibly disagree with the following; ‘Peter Dutton should resign from his position as leader of the opposition. He ought to, in fact he must if he’s to salvage any credibility as a human. He ought to just quit politics altogether. And Sussann Lay ought to quit too. She should. She must know that she’s totally hopless and an embarrassment to herself and politics in general.’
So, if you have to, or must use modal verbs, consider their lexical context and don’t use them to attack yourselves, unless, that is, you’re terminally masochistic and in need of a few rounds of REBT. Applied wisely though, they’re a powerful tool in your grammatical toolbox.