Ahead of a UN session focusing on Australia’s human rights record, the Morrison government has rejected a call from a Pacific island neighbor to phase out coal power as one of 55 recommendations.
Australia rebuffed the Marshall Islands’ request to phase out coal-fired power in order to limit global heating to 1.5C, as the climate crisis is increasingly framed as a threat to human rights.
The recommendations that Australia “will not consider further at this time” also include proposals from a range of countries to end the offshore processing of asylum seekers arriving by sea and to prohibit detaining children in immigration detention.
Every five years each country’s record and policies on human rights are put under the spotlight as part of a UN process known as the universal periodic review.
The Marshall Islands, which, together with other Pacific nations regard climate change as an existential threat, had recommended in an earlier session that Australia “work consistently towards its target in conformity with the Paris Agreement to keep global warming below 1.5°C, by phasing out the use of coal”.
In a formal response submitted ahead of Thursday’s hearing in Geneva, Australia noted the recommendation but said it would not consider it further, a stance that amounts to a formal rejection.
