WITH the COP26 global climate talks kicking off in Glasgow, Coffs Harbour locals have called for stronger, more urgent action from the Australian Government.

Members of Coffs Coast Climate Action Group raised a very large banner reading ‘The climate crisis is already costing Cowper – 2050 is too late’ outside Cowper MP Pat Conaghan’s new office at the Coffs Harbour Jetty on Monday morning.

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Spokesperson for Coffs Coast Climate Action Group, Tony Johnson, explained, “At one minute to midnight and after weeks of risible theatrics by the Nationals, PM Morrison has finally announced the inevitable – Australia will get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

“But, more importantly, unlike other countries, Australia will achieve this by doing nothing!

“That’s right, exactly nothing we are not already doing,” he said.

Mr Johnson, a local avocado farmer, said, “The climate science is clear, this decade is critical for the world to avoid existential risks associated with runaway global heating.

“Our refusal to strengthen our 2030 target will have consequences, in our trade relationships, as well as for the climate.”

Mr Johnson said he is fed up with National Party MPs using regional Australians as an excuse to delay action, pointing out that it is farmers and regional communities who are on the frontlines of climate impacts.

He said, “Coffs will experience increasingly powerful storms, hail, bushfires, dangerous extreme heat and coastal inundation and that is why we’re asking our Federal MP Pat Conaghan to demand the Government take stronger action.”

The Coffs Coast Climate Action Group say the Morrison Government continues to approve, and even subsidise, new coal and gas developments, the biggest drivers of climate change.

They say that, without a serious plan to phase out coal and gas, there is no substance to Australia’s emissions reduction targets.

By Andrew VIVIAN