Australia is witnessing a new culture war as global trends collide

In Australia, we are still linking caring for the climate with progressive politics – as if an ideology can stop the planet cooking, Amy Remeikis says.

There are a couple of global trends colliding with each other at the moment.

On one hand, we have, as discussed in this column eons ago, the discussion about energy security being national security.

The rolling catastrophe that is the Trump administration and its never ending appetite for war has shown what staying tied to fossil fuels means for nations, speeding up the energy transition.

Now that it has hit commuter wallets through the petrol pump, we have seen electric vehicle take up, as once again – according to the IEA – renewables will overtake coal as the world’s top power source this year.

Not that you would know that from much of the Australian discussion, even as RBA Governor Michele Bullock made note of a key difference between this round of inflation and what we saw in the 1970s stagflation crisis – that we are “less dependent on oil”.

In Australia, we are still linking caring for the climate with progressive politics – as if an ideology can stop the planet cooking.

We still like to pretend that the gas industry ‘holds up the economy’ as if multinationals making profit automatically means benefits for every day Australians.

Chris Bowen’s press club speech on Wednesday, which was just to set the scene before next........

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