As it turns out, the best way to publicly humiliate prime minister Scott Morrison's climate action proposal is by purchasing billboard ad space during the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference. Honestly, we wish we had thought of this sooner. Political comedian and A Rational Fear host, Dan Ilic, did; buying three billboards in Glasgow to draw attention to the Morrison government's climate response during the COP26. Go big or go home, truly.
You don't need to live in Glasgow to know that hiring a billboard – let alone three – is on the pricier end of political satire. But as Ilic has seen in executing his latest stunt; he isn't the only Australian deeply unsatisfied with Morrison's proposal. In just 24 hours, Ilic was able to raise over $40,000 – nearly $30,000 more than the $12,225 he needed to keep the billboards up for the full two weeks of the conference.
On Monday, Ilic took to Twitter to announce his latest project; with the intention to "tell the truth" about Australia's climate record. A very fitting opportunity given that the purpose of the conference is for world leader's to discuss the Paris Agreement and how they’re working to stick to it.
“Australia is famous at these talks for cheating, lying and giving fake commitments,” Ilic wrote in the campaign’s statement.
“But this time it’s different, the world’s most powerful governments aren’t buying any of our bullshit.
Because the COP26: Truthful Billboard — blasted through $12k in 2hours — I've now updated the stretch-goal to $1,000,000 and called it #JokeKeeper:https://t.co/YapNUFJcMg
— Dan Ilic (@danilic) September 29, 2021
“So the Australian Government is about to spend a tonne of money on ads to tell the world how much they’re investing in climate action and how much they’ve lowered their emissions, and spin up language and terms of phrase to make it look like Australia has done something. When, in fact, Australia has gone backwards over the last 15 years on climate action.”
The announcement comes less than a week after US Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, praised Morrison for his proactive climate response; despite Australia trailing at least 20 years behind the rest of the world to meet our net-zero emissions target. Not only was Pelosi's appraisal problematic, but all of the prime minister's actions to date have indicated otherwise. Most alarmingly, the recent reports that Morrison might not even attend the climate summit in Glasgow.
One thing that is for certain, is that once Ilic's Glasgow billboards criticising Australia's climate response are up, we'll be the first to share them.
