So here we are, Australia 2021: in the week @TurnbullMalcolm gets fired from the NSW Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy Board by the coal lobby, Grant King and Susie Smith get appointed to the federal Climate Change Authority by the gas lobby 1/n https://www.afr.com/business/energy/grant-king-to-overhaul-the-climate-change-authority-20210408-p57hk4?btis

King’s personal carbon footprint, as a company CEO and lobbyist, is up there in Australia’s all time hall of shame. His career is one of relentless pursuit of fossil fuels expansion and aggressive anti-climate lobbying 2/n

King was appointed as CEO of Origin Energy in 2000, on its demerger from Boral where he’d been MD since 1994. At Origin King presided over massive expansion into new reserves and fracking the shit out of Queensland. 3/n

As an aside, in a moment of professional humiliation, King was forced to resign from the BHP board before his first AGM after shareholders objected to his record of writedowns at Origin https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/grant-king-pays-dearly-for-origin-energy-missteps-20170828-gy5ct7 ) 4/n

OK enough with the gifs. Here’s where it gets serious: Perhaps his most damaging ‘contribution’: King “served as an APPEA Board Director for two decades and played an important role in guiding the development of APPEA’s policy and advocacy.” 5/n https://www.appea.com.au/all_news/appea-honours-grant-kings-outstanding-career/

. @APPEALtd is a ferocious advocate for oil and gas expansion and highly effective political operative. This graph is from a 2018 @adamlmorton piece on LNG. Look at the impact of *those two decades* 6/n https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/13/problem-in-waiting-why-natural-gas-will-wipe-out-australias-emissions-gains

King was president of the @BCAcomau during the time that it supported the repeal of the carbon tax and said a 45% national emissions reduction target by 2030 would be ‘economy wrecking) (thankfully under Tim Reed this stance has softened somewhat) 7/n https://twitter.com/bcacomau/status/1011414577702031361

In 2019, King as BCA president openly championed the use of Kyoto carry over credits. The Australian government’s insistence on using them at the 2019 global talks was described as “cheating” by Paris Agreement architect Laurence Tubiana 8/n

Tubiana went on to say that “Australia was willing in a way to destroy the whole system, because that is the way to destroy the whole Paris agreement.” Good job, Australia. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/16/un-climate-talks-australia-accused-of-cheating-and-thwarting-global-deal 9/n

So yeah, here we are: the person perhaps most responsible for Australia's biggest, entirely avoidable, emissions problem (LNG) is now chairing the authority that is supposed to advise the government on climate science and policy. 10/n

Susie Smith also joins the authority, from the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network (AIGN), which has stymied Australian climate policy for three decades. They mostly lurk in the shadows, representing Australia’s self described “greenhouse mafia” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_Mafia 11/n

And how’s this for a carbon footprint? Prior to her appointment as CEO of AIGN in 2017, Smith sat on the APPEA Greenhouse committee, with King, for 12 years, as the rep of South Australian oil and gas producer, Narrabri fracker and subsidy-wanter @SantosLtd 12/n

What are the takeaways here? Morrison’s government is not committed to decarbonisation and does not care about climate change. That’s nothing new. They do however care about signalling. And they are signalling to their mates in the gas industry that they’ve got their back 13/n

It is also about wanting to say on the global stage (in face of Biden pressure, COP26 etc) that “we are working towards net zero by 2050!!!” and “hey! we are listening to our Climate Change Authority!!!” Yeah, it’s desperate. 14/n

The only way the LNP can get comfortable about saying they will act on the advice of the Climate Change Authority is by having the fossil fuel lobby running the authority, dictating the policy. 15/n

The ‘gas fired recovery’ is *vulnerable*, my friends. People are seeing through it. So they’re stacking the machinery of government. It’s 100% grift. Huuuuge subsidies, ie life support, for a dying industry (the establishment of which is King’s life’s work! His legacy!) 16/n

What does this mean for us? Don’t get distracted by the Climate Change Authority. Keep the pressure on. It’s the end game for LNG. They’re no longer playing to win, just to delay. Every project, every drill site, every pipeline counts. Every tonne of carbon counts. 17/end

(Sorry for stuffing up the thread mid way through! Think it is all there now! tweets 1-17! Thanks for listening to my TED talk)