The Daily Telegraph, and 24-hour news channel Sky News Australia, will promote the benefits of a carbon-neutral economy. This comes as world leaders prepare for a critical climate summit in Glasgow later this year. As thehas reported, the company will run a two-week campaign advocating for a carbon net zero target to be reached by 2050, which commentators now regard as a minimalist position.
The decision to stop wasting time challenging the science makes pragmatic business sense for Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire in the face of growing international condemnation and pressure from advertisers over its editorial stance on climate change. Despite the company’s faded political influence, it may also help Prime Minister Scott Morrison persuade rebel backbenchers in the Liberal/National Coalition to support a zero emissions target.
While News Corp’s change in position is welcome, it is only now catching up with the rest of the country.The Business Council of Australia and Australian Industry Group and company boardrooms around the country have already led the way. The peak employer groups have embraced the science of climate change. They support the Paris Agreement and transitioning to net-zero emissions by 2050.
The federal government will struggle to neutralise opposition to a zero emissions target in regional Queensland while providing the Coalition with some ammunition against the threat of independents and Greens in vulnerable urban seats.Reaching a zero emissions target by 2050 would likely require a review of existing 2030 targets, currently set at 26–28 per cent below 2005 levels.
Climate change is no longer just a moral or scientific argument: it is an economic one about the sustainability of jobs for the future. It is a challenge which the Biden government in the US and Johnson government in the UK are tackling urgently. Australia should waste no more time in following their example.editor Lisa Davies writes a weekly newsletter exclusively for subscribers.
Doesn't undo the damage already done. Good journalism is meant to be about presenting facts, not playing politics
One media organisation critics another media organisation’s position on something. We at least used to pretend that news media where unbiased platforms for independent journalism. Can we go back to faking it?
. Long overdue! That's an phenomenal understatement. Murdoch lobbied the public to abolish the carbon tax & vote out Labor governments that wanted to progress the implementation of climate change action. Murdoch is personally responsible - we know what you have done.
Are you ludicrously naive or culpably complicit in this screamingly obvious deception?
JFC how deluded. Must be humiliating working for