Australia’s climate failures are costing its economy – and Scott Morrison’s government is being blamed by Greg Jericho

The latest OECD economic survey of Australia will be uncomfortable reading for the prime minister

A quicker pace of emissions reduction remains toxic to Scott Morrison’s government – as the prime minister lacks the political will or power to challenge the climate change deniers in his government. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The latest OECD economic survey of Australia details an economy that has weathered well the Covid storm, and yet while the Morrison government will enjoy such talk, it will not like the advice that comes with it – recommendations to improve our low productivity growth, inequality and to massively reduce our emissions.

The OECD only surveys a country every few years. The latest, released overnight, is the first for Australia since December 2018.

Back in 2018 global pandemics were merely the stuff of movies; and so the report was focused on keeping growth at around 3%. Back then, the OECD noted of Australia, “life is good, with high levels of well being”.

This time the opening is rather less ebullient.

Yet the OECD praises our Covid response, noting, “well-coordinated policies across different levels of government sought to suppress Covid-19 transmission” and that the economic “downturn in 2020 was less significant than in the majority of other OECD countries”:

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The report’s authors note that Australia had one of the biggest stimulus packages and the one that was most targeted for the 2019-20 financial year:

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