Australia gets to say it cut emissions – despite our emissions rising – because they rose a little bit less than it said they would

Five reasons Greg Hunt may not be the best minister in the world

Australia’s environment minister, Greg Hunt, has been given an award for being the “best minister in the world”.

“The aim of this award is to recognise innovation in global government work and highlight ministerial initiatives that have resulted in positive changes in their communities,” the United Arab Emirates minister of cabinet affairs, Mohammed Al Gergawi, said as he gave Hunt the award in Dubai.

Here’s five reasons Hunt may not actually be the best minister in the world.

Greg Hunt wins 'best minister in the world' for efforts to reduce carbon emissions Read more

1. He approved the country’s biggest coalmine, ignoring his own department’s advice

From the perspective of endangered reptiles in Queensland – or the climate – Hunt may not be the best minister in the world.

In July 2014 Hunt gave federal environmental approval to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine in Queensland, which would be the country’s biggest coalmine and would create more emissions that New York City.

But the approval didn’t last long. It was overturned a year later when the federal court ruled that Hunt had ignored his own department’s advice about the mine’s impact on two vulnerable species, the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.

After imposing a few more conditions to protect the reptiles, the mine was approved again in August 2015. That only left environmentalists worrying about the mine’s impact on the world’s carbon budget and the Great Barrier Reef.

2. Carbon emissions in Australia are going up

While many Australians were preparing their Christmas feasts, the government quietly dropped a report showing Australia’s emissions rose in the year to July 2015. Fresh from their trip to Paris where Hunt and the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, agreed to limit global warming to 2C, or maybe even 1.5C, the timing of the release raised eyebrows.

Despite the emissions going up, Hunt was able to tell the Paris climate change conference that Australia had already met its 2020 emissions reduction target – which they say is 5% below 2000 levels. The reason is that Australia did better than it said it would at Kyoto, and can count the “overshoot” as a reduction in the period to 2020. But unlike any other developed country, Australia committed to increase emissions at Kyoto.

In summary, we get to say we cut emissions, despite our emissions rising, because they rose a bit less than we said they would.

3. The Great Barrier Reef is in bad shape

After intense lobbying, Hunt was successful in keeping the reef off Unesco’s world heritage in-danger list, although it was clearly on the brink and Australia will have to report back to Unesco in December.

Government’s scientists have warned the reef is in poor and deteriorating condition, with climate change the leading long-term threat. Pollution flowing from land, cyclones and a plague of coral-eating starfish are also serious threats.

Meanwhile, several port developments along the Great Barrier Reef will bring increasing shipping traffic and the risk of an oil spill. And notoriously, Hunt has approved plans for dredging at Abbot Point, inside the reef’s world heritage area, which scientists say will damage coral.

4. He was instrumental in dismantling the carbon tax, despite writing a thesis backing it

Hunt and Tony Abbott came to government and put a bulldozer through many Labor government initiatives, chief among them the dreaded carbon tax, which was later linked to the biggest drop in emissions in a decade.

But his vociferous criticism of the tax looked a little odd, given what he said in his university thesis about a carbon tax: “Ultimately it is by harnessing the natural economic forces which drive society that the pollution tax offers us an opportunity to exert greater control over our environment.”

5. He is trying to shut-up annoying greenies

Environmentalists seem to be an annoyance to Hunt. So, in several ways, he and his colleagues are trying to minimise their impact.

In 2014 Hunt was worried that ignoring environmental advice from his department could allow environmental groups to challenge his rulings in court. So he passed a bill – with Labor’s support – granting himself retrospective immunity against appeals on that basis.

It fits in a larger fight his government has had with environmental groups waging so-called “lawfare”, where they challenge the legality of developments in court. Hunt and his colleagues sought to tighten the definition of an “interested party” under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, meaning environmental groups wouldn’t have standing in court.

And if that’s not enough to shut up greenies, Hunt’s colleagues have also looked at cancelling the tax-deductible status of donations to environmental groups, as well as outlawing secondary environmental boycotts.