Albo’s Net Zero Fantasy

Net zero advocates sell a comforting idea: cut emissions, hit the target, and the climate settles back into something familiar. That is not how it works. Net zero can help slow down human-caused climate change. It does not rewind the planet to a preferred year. Earth’s climate was changing long before us and will keep changing after us.

The real question for a country like Australia is not whether change can be abolished, but whether we are ready to survive it.

That is why Labor’s climate spending looks backwards. In the 2025–26 Budget, the government reports $3,786.6 million for emissions reduction and $166.1 million for net-zero industries and skills, but only $354.0 million for climate adaptation and disaster resilience. That is not a survival strategy. That is political populism.

Mitigation matters. It can slow the damage. But for a single nation, it should be one measure among many, not the centre of gravity. Adaptation is the realistic solution: water security, tougher homes, resilient infrastructure, stronger agriculture, urban cooling, disaster readiness.

Net zero makes the rain just lighter. Adaptation builds the umbrella.