In Part 2 of The Politics of Distraction, Steve Sharp detailed how extractive industries in Melanesia drive deforestation and land degradation – and carbon emissions – in a regulatory climate of dysfunction and lawlessness. In a parallel universe, Pacific climate diplomats selectively hector non-Pacific governments for dragging their feet on the Paris Agreement while dismissing…
Category: Mass Distraction
From Extraction to Distraction: politics, not action, is driving Pacific climate diplomacy
In Part 1 of the series The Politics of Distraction, Steve Sharp identified the UN Summit in Glasgow last November as the high-water mark of Pacific climate diplomacy. Despite Pacific diplomats proving themselves climate warriors abroad, ‘climate action’ at home has fallen short of island states’ own high ambitions for environmental stewardship, endorsed by Pacific Island Forum…
It will take more than clever politics to ‘end the climate wars’
During the recent Australian federal election campaign, the then opposition leader – now prime minister – Anthony Albanese vowed to ‘end the climate wars’. Post-election, the energy crisis has made this promise more difficult to realise. But, as Steve Sharp writes in the first of a six-part series, so too will Pacific climate diplomacy which…