Australia's Budget: Of Every $100 In 2020, 37 Cents For Environment/Widlife, 16 Cents For Climate
The proportion of federal budget spending on environment and climate programs has fallen by nearly a third since the Coalition was elected eight years ago, according to a new conservation group analysis.
The Australian Conservation Foundation found that for every $100 spent in last year’s budget just 37 cents was spent protecting the environment and 16 cents on addressing the climate crisis. That’s down from 50 cents and 25 cents respectively when the Coalition was elected in 2013-14, according to the ACF.
Releasing its analysis on the eve of this year’s federal budget, the ACF called for policy reform matched by investment to build resilience to environmental threats. The environment’s declining share of the budget has come as calls for greater action to address a climate emergency have grown. Scott Morrison has resisted pressure to join major developed countries in setting a science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2030, and to date not joined more than 100 other nations in adopting a formal target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
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The analysis was shared with the offices of the environment minister, Sussan Ley, and the emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, on Friday. They did not respond to questions about it. Prof Richard Kingsford, the director for the University of New South Wales’ centre of ecosystem science, said he was not surprised by what the analysis found. He said the spending on biodiversity programs had been inadequate before the Coalition was elected and had gone backwards. He said there had been nothing substantial to replace the hollowing out of billion-dollar programs such Landcare, but increasing funding for well-designed biodiversity programs in Tuesday’s budget could slow the rate of decline.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/10/coalition-government-spent-just-16-cents-on-climate-crisis-out-of-every-100-analysis-shows
