Environment groups sought to place ad calling for action on climate change in arrivals hall to coincide with G20 meeting

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Brisbane airport has rejected an advertising billboard depicting a farmer calling for action on climate change on the grounds that the issue is “too political”.



Environment and development groups had sought to place the billboard in the airport’s arrivals hall in time for the G20 leaders’ meeting in two weeks time.

Linked with a social media campaign, it originally said “Action on climate change is #onmyagenda, Dear G20 leaders please put it on yours” a reference to Australia’s resistance to having climate change on the G20 agenda at all.

The groups then agreed to remove the words “Dear G20 leaders” – leaving the billboard to read simply “Action on climate change is #onmyagenda, please put it on yours”.

But according to WWF chief executive Dermot O’Gorman, media buyer Ooh Media replied that the airport was still rejecting the billboard, which features South Australian farmer David Bruer, “because they consider climate change as being too political”.

Another billboard, with the same message, featuring firefighter Dean McNulty, will be erected on the route leaders are likely to take to the site of the G20 meeting.

A billboard featuring firefighter Dean McNulty. Photograph: Supplied

“The #onmyagenda partners were surprised by the decision to reject the billboard. The reality is climate change is a global problem affecting economies, societies and environments all around the world, we can’t afford to sweep it under the carpet, we owe it to future generations to deal with it right here, right now,” O’Gorman said.



Bruer, who owns a vineyard in South Australia, told Guardian Australia he was “surprised more than anything else”.



“They say climate change is political. Actually it is a reality for farmers like me,” Bruer said. He lost $25,000 worth of grapes in one day last year when the temperature reached 46 degrees C.

Australia has reluctantly conceded that climate change can be included in a single brief paragraph of the G20 leaders’ communique after heavy lobbying by the US and European nations.

The government had resisted any discussion of climate at the Brisbane meeting on the grounds that the G20 is primarily an economic forum, but other nations argued leaders’ agreements at meetings like the G20 are crucial to build momentum towards a successful international deal at the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris next year.

The climate change billboard depicting South Australian farmer David Bruer. Photograph: Supplied

The final wording of the leaders’ statement after the meeting is still being finalised but it is believed to simply recommit to addressing climate change through UN processes.

The outcome – and Australia’s fierce resistance to a discussion of climate change – have been attacked by the leading climate economist Nicholas Stern, who has written for Guardian Australia that the latest “synthesis” report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should be “high on the agenda” for the G20 meeting.

“The G20 is the most effective forum for the discussion of the growth story of the future, the transition to the low-carbon economy. Yet the local politics of a country of less than 25 million is being allowed to prevent essential strategic discussions of an issue that is of fundamental importance to the prosperity and wellbeing of the world’s population of seven billion people,” he writes.

Australia has agreed the G20 should discuss climate-related issues as part of its deliberations on energy efficiency, but this also appears to be wrapped up in a general commitment that countries consider taking action in the future on some of a long list of areas where energy efficiency improvements might be made.

Groups involved in the advertising campaign include Oxfam, Greenpeace, 350.0rg, WWF, Earth Hour, GetUp, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and 1 Million Women.

They are encouraging people to tweet G20 leaders asking them “to include climate change as a stand-alone item on the G20 agenda, as it was on the previous eight G20 summits”.

Brisbane airport was contacted for comment.