Prevent Australia from using Kyoto Credits to pass the Paris Agreement

The Responsible Parties to the Paris Agreement

To the Responsible Parties to the Paris Agreement,

Right now, the youth of Australia aren’t being listened to by our government even though the impacts of the climate crisis are here now. Parts of Regional NSW, as well as our state capitol Sydney, are blanketed with smoke from catastrophic bushfires, with some parts having an Air Quality Index of over 2,200 (bear in mind that anything over 200 is classified as hazardous).

Australia has barely entered the fire season and already there are fires all across the country some as big as 319,000 hectares (Gospers Mountain Fire as of 10/12/19). Yet our government is trying to use an accounting trick to get out of having to act on the very thing that has exacerbated these devastating fires, climate change. Minister Angus Taylor (who is representing Australia at the COP25) has continuously made misleading claims about the government’s reduction in emissions. Taylor claims Australia will meet its targets 7 years ahead of schedule which is this is untrue.

The Paris climate agreement requires Australia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 26% and 28% by 2030 and to hit net zero emissions by 2050.

The Morrison government is attempting to count surplus emission reductions credits earned as Kyoto Credits to reach the bare minimum of 26%.

Without using these credits, Australia’s expected emissions reductions will be just 16%. Barely our fair share. A meaningful global deal would be at least 45%. We need to do something about this. We need to stop countries like Australia from being able to “cheat” their way out of real action on climate change.

Climate change is causing unprecedented drought resulting in our bushland and forests drying out like never before, even in ancient World Heritage Listed rainforests that have never been subject to bushfire. Us students have long lives ahead of us and we don’t wish this to be the new normal, but if sufficient action is not taken it may well be the reality.

Climate change is already affecting us all and will continue to get worse, especially for those on the front lines and first nations people. They are dealing with food shortages, land loss, water shortage, and loss of connection to their culture. All while the Australian government takes their land and sells it to mining companies for their own profit. Sign the petition to demand real climate action now.


To: The Responsible Parties to the Paris Agreement
From: [Your Name]

In Australia, their youth aren’t being listened to by our government even though the impacts of the climate crisis are affecting them now. Some of their cities like Sydney (and many regional parts of NSW) are blanketed with smoke from catastrophic bushfires, with some parts having an Air Quality Index of over 2,200.

The Paris climate agreement requires Australia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 26% and 28% by 2030 and to hit net zero emissions by 2050.

The Morrison government is attempting to count surplus emission reductions credits earned as Kyoto Credits to reach the bare minimum of 26%.

Without using these credits, Australia’s expected emissions reductions will be just 16%. Barely our fair share. A meaningful global deal would be at least 45%. We need to do something about this. We need to stop countries like Australia from being able to “cheat” their way out of real action on climate change.

Australia has barely entered the fire season and already there are fires all across the country some as big as 319,000 hectares (Gospers Mountain Fire as of 10/12/19). Yet our government is trying to use an accounting trick to get out of having to act on the very thing that has exacerbated these devastating fires, climate change. Minister Angus Taylor (who is representing Australia at the COP25) has continuously made misleading claims about the government’s reduction in emissions. Taylor claims Australia will meet its targets 7 years ahead of schedule which is this is untrue. We need to act of the climate crisis and using an accounting trick isn't the way to do it. We need to take REAL climate action! We need to prevent Australia from using these credits to pass the agreement.

With Hope,