Trying to save the planet now will only save Putin

We will not win a confrontation with the “arc of autocracy” if we continue to outsource our energy and manufacturing industries to them.

Remember the Glasgow climate conference? It was just four months ago that the conference’s president, Alok Sharma, declared “we finally kicked coal in the past where it belongs”.

What a difference a few weeks makes. Italy is now reopening its coal plants, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told the Bundestag this week his country needs to focus on “building up a reserve of coal and gas”.

The Glasgow talkfest has had the long-term impact of a reality TV show. Within months of it ending, European nations are like Boxing Day shoppers in their mad rush to buy Australian coal. Australian coal prices are almost double their previous record.

The more important developments last year happened away from Glasgow and was ignored.

At the time of the conference, China and Russia banned the export of fertilisers, including the most commonly used in Australian farming, urea. Urea is made from natural gas and shortages of gas have sent its price soaring.

While the Glasgow talkfest continued, the Australian company Incitec Pivot announced it would shut down Australia’s last urea plant at the end of this year. From next year, Australia will be completely reliant on urea produced overseas for our food security – at least until a government-backed urea plant at Karratha in the Pilbara can be built.

So, while we joined other nations discussing government policies in 2050, Russia and China took action to protect their ability to grow food. Perhaps they knew something then we did not, but there can be no excuses now to distract us from a laser-like focus on our food and energy security.

We have been asleep, dreaming that technology alone, rather than access to resources, can keep our lights on and our economy functioning. The harsh truth is that we cannot feed ourselves, transport goods or even charge our phones without fossil fuels. There is no app for that.

Europe’s vulnerable state has not been caused by Russia; it is a self-inflicted wound. Europe’s gas production fell by 30 per cent over the past decade, while its gas consumption fell by just 13 per cent. It has made the gap up by importing more gas from Russia, even though Europe has more gas reserves than Australia. Europe made a policy decision not to frack or drill for gas.

This example highlights the dangerous hypocrisy of climate change rhetoric. The slogan is that Europe is kicking coal and gas to history. The reality is it is still consuming lots of energy consistent with a well-to-do modern life, but is shifting fossil fuel production to other countries.

This carbon trade does not save the planet, it just makes a country dependent on others for its essential goods and services. Europe is set to pay Russia more than $6bn this week for gas.

We risk going down the European path of dependence. Our banks and insurers are refusing to do business with coal, oil and gas developments. We were self-sufficient in petroleum production 20 years ago. Today, we produce less than half our petroleum needs.

An ESG virus has infected our financial sector. This agenda pretends that investors should follow Environmental, Sustainable and Governance principles. As we can see from the high prices of everything now, ESG instead stands for Extreme Shortages Guaranteed.

To protect our nation, we should outlaw ESG. Additional production of coal, oil and gas is crucial to protect Australia’s, and the world’s, security. With our rich resources, Australia should help by producing more energy within the free world. The alternative is we become more reliant on the unfree world. We will not win a confrontation with the “arc of autocracy” if we continue to outsource our energy and manufacturing industries to them.

We should adopt the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment. It recommended the government should help our resources sector establish an industry-funded insurance scheme, and that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission should investigate whether companies applying ESG principles are acting in an anti-competitive fashion.

We should adopt the suggestion of Boris Johnson, and pause our net-zero plans. Labor’s net-zero plan would tax our remaining oil refiners and most of our gas producers. Such a policy would now only save Putin, not save the planet.

On the last day of 2021, Germany shut three of its last six ­nuclear power plants. How shortsighted does this seem in hindsight? This deluded agenda, championed by a Swedish teenager, has weakened the industrial strength of the free world, and that has only encouraged bullies like Putin. We need to stop trying to save the planet by building a green economy, and instead defend Australia by rebuilding our industrial base.

This article was originally published in The Australian on 9 March 2022