Katter questions PM on ‘how’ he’ll achieve net zero
KENNEDY MP, Bob Katter, has used Question Time to question Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, on how he’ll achieve net zero emissions by 2050, with the PM set to attend the Glasgow Climate Summit in two weeks.
Mr Katter challenged that most of Australia’s export earnings are indirectly or directly linked to coal.
“Since our real exports are iron-ore, aluminium, copper, and coal, and they require coking-coal for smelting, then all our export earnings come indirectly or directly from coal,” Katter said to Morrison.
“If net-zero 2050 is real, and not a lie, can you convince China to give us the solar panels for free, and Australians to only turn their lights, TV and air-conditioning on during the day?
“Isn’t the ‘how’ (you will achieve net-zero) in Bradfield’s Hells Gate Dam, which produces zero-emissions industries, including high-protein algae feedstock, electricity, ethanol, and sugar.
“Isn’t this the ‘how’ you are after, for our country?”
Mr Katter said he agreed with the Prime Minister that the question of net-zero was not if, or when, but how.
“I am not a climate denier, I have never been a climate denier,” Mr Katter said.
“I believe that in 200 years fossil fuels will have run out and there will be no alternative but to go into nuclear energy. Forget about everything else. We aren’t going to kill every bird with those wind turbines, and we aren’t going to cover the place in glass. When you smelt silicone dioxide to create solar panels, you burn up huge amounts of fuel (coal).
“The Crossbenchers and I are proposing a Sovereign Fuel Security Bill which will massively reduce the CO2 footprint; however, the main purpose is to give us fuel self-sufficiency.
“The legislation will prevent the export of Australia’s indigenous oil supply which will increase our refining capacity here.
“It will mandate that Government cars driven by public servants in the metropolitan areas be electric vehicles that are made in Australia.
“The Bill will require all of Australia’s waste to be recycled into petrol and diesel using pyrolysis, as is currently being done by Southern Oils in Wagga Wagga and Gladstone.
“And there will be a renewable fuel mandate which will include ethanol produced by Australia’s sugar and grain farmers, and algae technology.”
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