Beyond the ‘Climate Wars’?: Australia heads to the polls

Outrage + Optimism

Persephonica

Science, Finance, Energy, Policy, Business, Green, Society, Current Affairs, Climate, News, Planet, Society & Culture, Environment, Climatechange, Nature, Parisclimateagreement, Globalwarming

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Australia heads to the polls this weekend - with climate firmly on the ballot. Is the country ready to lose its reputation as the battleground of the climate wars? And are we about to see a lasting shift in a nation that has for years been torn between its sunlight and its coal?

As a pivotal election looms, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson examine what’s at stake for one of the world’s highest per-capita emitters. After months of polling ahead, the opposition Coalition now faces a late surge from the governing Labor Party, with the Greens, Teals and independents all likely to play a crucial role. The result could reinforce, roll-back or reshape domestic climate policy, and determine whether Australia emerges as a global climate leader at a time when others are stepping away from the stage.

To understand what’s going on, the team calls up friend of the show Dean Bialek, Founder and Managing Director of The Pacific Project. Together, they explore the opportunities for Australia in the energy transition, the narratives and dynamics driving this election, and the country’s potential role as a regional leader as it hopes to host 2026’s COP31 with other Pacific nations.

So, does Australia have a role to play in reigniting regional and global climate momentum? And how will this election shape the climate fight - both within and beyond its borders.

Learn more

🌿 Philip Levin’s opinion piece in the New York Times, ‘Trump Tried to Derail Our Work. We Banded Together and Moved Forward.’

🦅 The Economist’s US cover this week, reported by Yahoo

🔬 Hungry Beast’s ‘I’m A Climate Scientist’ video

⚡ ABC News Australia’s graphic, illustrating the shift in Australia’s energy mix

Instagram @outrageoptimism

LinkedIn @outrageoptimism

Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks

Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan

Exec Producer: Dino Sofos

Commissioning Editor: Sarah Thomas

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. I'm Tom Rivikano.
0:05.0	I'm Tustiana Fierrez. And I'm Paul Dickinson. This week, with the elections coming up,
0:09.1	we do a deep dive into Australia and its role in global climate leadership. Plus, we speak to
0:13.8	our good friend, Dean Biali. Thanks for being.
0:18.9	Okay, friends, so I know we are time constrained this week, as sometimes happens, but we're going to make up what we can do in quantity with more quality.
0:26.4	So let's dive straight in. We're going to go to Australia. There's a very consequential election coming up that's going to determine so much in this critical year, where we need to get momentum from wherever we can find it in the run-up to Bel-M.
0:41.4	And we're a bit short of momentum, as truth be told in many places. But just before we do that, anything pressing that we need to cover off and share with our listeners at the top of the
0:46.0	episode. I can offer a tiny little bit of fun from the trouble Harvard University's been having.
0:52.2	I don't know if you know, but there was this very tricky
0:54.3	demand sent to Harvard in April, and it said that someone described it as prepared to be
1:00.9	boarded from the Trump administration, but it was an executive order that said that the university
1:04.8	shall commission an external party which shall satisfy the federal government as to its
1:09.2	competence and good faith to audit the student body,
1:12.2	faculty, staff and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department field or teaching unit
1:18.6	must be individually viewpoint diverse. A viewpoint diversity audit. I can't quite imagine how that works,
1:24.7	but okay. What is that? Well, on the 18th of March,
1:27.5	the White House issued a different executive order saying that it was going to restore the
1:31.2	values of individual dignity, hard work and excellent. And today, President Donald Trump signed
1:36.4	a memorandum removing radical diversity, equity, and inclusion from the Foreign Service.
1:41.7	So diversity is both forbidden and mandatory.
1:46.4	And this is my little Orwellian thought for the day.
1:49.6	It's compulsory in Harvard, and it's illegal in the Foreign Service.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Persephonica, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Persephonica and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.