By Ross Gittins

Copyright brisbanetimes

After last week, Anthony Albanese and his Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen are entitled to a great sigh of relief. They made it through without anyone noticing what a weak job they’re doing of protecting our children and grandchildren’s future.

They began the week belatedly releasing an official report telling in shocking detail just how bad our lives will become if we and the other rich countries fail to do enough to stop global warming. They ended the week setting a target aiming to do insufficient over the decade to 2035.

They offered a masterclass in convincing people you’re doing something to fix a problem when, in reality, you’re doing more to make it worse than make it better. If there was an Oscar for fooling the punters, these guys would win it.

And how did they do it? By waving around % signs. As required by the Paris climate change agreement of 2015, we have committed to reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses by 43 per cent of their 2005 level by 2030.