We must defeat the demon of fossil capital

September 8, 2025

Julian Cribb potently describes the latest report, A Climate-First Foreign Policy for Australia, from the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group, as a “trailblazing vision of where an enlightened, informed, and caring humanity might go in the face of the brutal escalation in climate impacts”. Cribb would know the soon-to-be-released National Climate Risk Assessment has been evocatively depicted by insiders as “dire,” “diabolical,” and “extremely confronting”.

Fittingly, ASLCG calls on government to “mobilise the resources necessary to address this clear and present danger, and to decarbonise our economy to reach net zero emissions as close to 2030 as possible. Climate change must be the next government’s top priority”. While 2035 appears elsewhere in the report, the Group argues that because 1.5°C has already been reached, logically we must bring the net zero date forward if we are to stay under 2°C.

However, as Malm and Carton conclude in Overshoot, the temperature will keep rising unless the “demon of fossil capital” is defeated. Each of us can help by choosing fossil-free banks and super funds. Market Forces shows how. But what we also need is a fossil-free government.