THE GND IS TOO CAUTIOUS:

A few minutes after taking the stage to declare victory in Australia's election Saturday, Anthony Albanese, the incoming Labor prime minister, promised to transform climate change from a source of political conflict into a generator of economic growth.

"Together we can end the climate wars," he told his supporters, who cheered for several seconds. "Together we can take advantage of the opportunity for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower."

With that comment and his win -- along with a surge of votes for candidates outside the two-party system who made combating global warming a priority -- the likelihood of a significant shift in Australia's climate policy has suddenly increased.

How far the country goes will depend on the final tallies, which are still being counted. But for voters, activists, and scientists who spent years in despair, lamenting the fossil fuel industry's hold on the conservatives who have run Australia for most of the past three decades, Saturday's results amount to an extraordinary reversal.

A country known as a global climate laggard, with minimal 2030 targets for cuts to carbon emissions, has finally tossed aside a deny-and-delay approach to climate change that most Australians, in polls, have said they no longer want.

"This is the long-overdue climate election Australia has been waiting for," said Joëlle Gergis, an award-winning climate scientist and writer from the Australian National University. "It was a defining moment in our nation's history."

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