Big brother, deputy sheriff or responsible neighbour?

According to Patricia Ranald, of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, “studies by prominent economists like Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, show that rapid trade liberalisation and deregulation in low-income developing economies with high unemployment does not lead to economic growth and can worsen poverty”. With an ideological commitment to creating a range of bilateral trade arrangements with our neighbours, Australia should at the least ensure there is adequate assessment of the social and environmental impacts of existing agreements on our smaller neighbours before proceeding with any new ones.

Australia refuses to rein-in Australian companies who cause problems in our region. In recent years it has even lobbied on behalf of Australian mining companies to encourage the Indonesian Government to open previously protected forests to mineral exploration and extraction. According to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, “at the behest of mining companies BHP-Billiton, Placer Dome, Rio Tinto and Newcrest, Australian embassy officials have on nine occasions pressed Indonesian government ministers and parliamentarians to relax their environment standards”.

Finally there is the question of how we should respond to the human displacement that will come with global warming. While the ALP, Greens and Democrats have all acknowledged the reality of “climate refugees”, the Coalition is taking a “wait and see” approach. Already there are two environmental refugee programs operating in our region; between New Zealand and the Pacific nation of Tuvalu and, more recently, Papua New Guinea is working to move the population of the Carteret Islands to Bougainville.

As the AMA noted last year, “climate change is likely to exacerbate poverty, increase migration and may lead to large scale population displacement through the Asia-Pacific region”. Estimates of the likely numbers of environmental refugees in the Asia-Pacific region vary but a common figure cited by many, such as Professor Norman Myers of Oxford University, is of the order of 65 million people.

A growing number of researchers are calling for the creation of a separate intake program for people displaced by global warming. New Zealand and PNG show this is possible. As the largest per capita greenhouse gas emitter in the industrial world (even worse than the US), we have a special responsibility to take action because of our overuse of the atmosphere.

This “carbon debt” should be recognised through serious measures to reduce our contribution to global warming, greatly increased ODA commitments that are focused on funding adaptation and the creation of an environmental refugee program. Our current focus on trade liberalisation, increased involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle and funding for fossil fuel developments elsewhere in the region and a growing focus on policing measures hardly bodes well for either our international reputation or for environmental security in our region in coming decades.