2020: where do we go from here? What we do next matters
The Green Recovery
I feel like there are a lot of people sitting at home this year, asking what is it all about? How did we get here? The future. But is it really? What did we imagine 2020 would look like compared to what it is actually shaping up to look like? Covid-19 has delivered unusual environmental benefits: cleaner air, lower carbon emissions, a respite for wildlife. Now the big question is whether we can capitalise on this moment. The Guardian aims to lead the debate from the front.
There have been great threats to overcome in the past..The Great Depression,
Facism in World War 2, racial tension and civil rights. In the 2020s it will be the Green Recovery. The government and businesses alike want us to return to “normal” but the truth is that normal for us wasn’t normal either..we were facing unprecedented bushfires and threats of extinction.
Each passing decade can be viewed in retrospect as being defined by a particular event. The 2000s by 9/11, the 2010s by the rise of authoritarianism around the world, and if we apply the much-needed pressure. The 2020s will be the decade in which there is a cultural and technological transition toward green energy and a sustainable world.
While many people and businesses are standing in the doorway to the next decade, wondering what’s next. 40million people are left without jobs and the coal and oil industry are facing a huge lack of demand as the future of airline travel is completely
in question.
The moment for change is within grasp! We are standing at door of this decade and it is ours to take. It is fated that the 2020s will be the decade where Australia’s chance to right years of wrongs to the climate has arrived.
Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, “if this recovery is to be sustainable – if our world is to become more resilient – we must do everything in our power to promote a green recovery. In other words, taking measures now to fight the climate crisis is not just a ‘nice-to-have’. It is a ‘must-have’ if we are to leave a better world for our children”. 2020 may well be the first year in decades that our emissions are lower than the previous years (). There may finally be a significant change in the way we as a society act to implement the transformations required. For the first time we can really see the difference in our world – in our air quality, our water quality and even encouraging numbers for animal populations.
The dust of the worst bushfire season in Australian history has settled (somewhat) and now is the time to rise from its ashes to a new future. Many of our former leaders who are now shadows of an era of real leadership have tried and failed to implement plans that would have had admittedly involved some sacrifice. But now is the perfect time for an investment in new energy as Adam Morton wrote that a large investment truly is the only way out of this current situation. However it is clear, now more than ever that leadership on this issue can’t just come from the top, again as This issue affects us all equally perhaps more than any other issue.
THE SOLUTION
Plans have already been laid out by groups such as Climateworks, a climate change thinktank has released a report that says that a net zero emissions Australia is within our grasp. This includes Hydrogen fuelled methods of steel production that can create 25,000 jobs in areas that rely on coal mining.
there is still a chance we could set a path to 100% renewable electricity, a highly reliable grid and significantly cheaper wholesale prices than today by introducing a handful of policies consistent with the Morrison government’s election platform, the economist Ross Garnaut says.
Despite the vacuum of federal leadership on this issue in Australia, We finally have the capacity to begin this transition. State leaders have met at energy events in 2019 and industry leaders are willing to invest in solar energy to aid Australia’s recovery. So what’s missing? We have seen people around the world find their voice and begin to chart a new path. And when this happens, it really is incredible what can happen!
There is no reason why we shouldn’t be doing the same thing. The truth is that if we all lead the debate on this issue and made it clear to those who need to hear it that this is the issue of the decade, then the truth will out.