Former Greens leader Bob Brown described Australia as being “culpable” for the devastation in Nepal because it was not acting seriously on the dangers of carbon emissions changing the climate.

Australia is co-hosting the COP31 summit in November, along with Türkiye. Yet despite talking up climate action, Labor set about lowering expectations after it was first elected in 2022.

Green Left asked Bob Brown, a former Greens leader, about Labor’s refusal to take climate action seriously, even though it is a co-host of COP31.

What do you think of Labor’s approach to the climate emergency and does Australia deserve to be co-hosting COP31?

The symbolism of turning on Beetaloo in the wake of the Nepali avalanche disaster is very hard to ignore.

But this Labor government, much like the far-right alternatives, is captured by the corporate sector, including Woodside and BHP selling off Australian’s rights for a secure future.

They won’t be the only culpable governments in Turkey, however. Labor appears to be better than Pauline Hanson, but One Nation and Labor are both culpable of making climate change worse.

Federal Labor is set to debate the so-called “improved native forest management” method. Supporters claim it is going save some native forests. However, it allows state governments to earn carbon credits to then plough back into an already dodgy carbon trading system. Should saving forests be contingent on companies being able to buy carbon credits?

We’ve got more than 600 national parks in Australia, and world heritage areas, and they’ve all been set aside for the nation’s future because of their natural and cultural heritage values.

They were never set aside because of the dollars that........

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