Australia rejoins UN climate fund dumped by Morrison
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The news: Australia will rejoin a global fund initiated by the United Nations after abandoning it in 2018 under former prime minister Scott Morrison, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The numbers: Between 2015 and 2018 the Abbott and Turnbull governments contributed $200 million to the fund, which backs climate infrastructure projects in developing countries.
The context: Droughts and floods in Pacific nations have increased by at least 30% compared to pre-industrial figures, according to Bureau of Meteorology analysis. Pacific nations are also struggling against rising sea levels, ocean acidification and greater temperature extremes. Australia is one of the world's highest greenhouse gas emitters per capita in the world.
What they said: “It’s great that Australia has re-joined the Green Climate Fund — as we should have done much earlier," Climate Council senior researcher Dr Wesley Morgan said in a statement.
"Now we’ll need to seriously step up our contributions to international climate finance if we’re to do our fair share to help vulnerable nations deal with the growing impacts of the climate crisis."
The sources: Sydney Morning Herald, Bureau of Meteorology
