Australia will take a new long-term emissions reduction target to November’s United Nations climate summit, as the conservative Liberal-National government weighs up whether to join more than 80 countries committing to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
A review into the potential economic impacts of adopting the goal will be finalised later this year in time for the Glasgow summit, as a growing number of Liberal MPs speak out on the need for the Liberal-National government to adopt more-ambitious climate policies.
Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who shares a close relationship with his Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, has called on countries around the world to follow the United Kingdom in adopting the 2050 target as part of the climate talks this year.
Federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor told The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald newspapers the government would settle on its 2050 strategy before Glasgow, which has been billed as the most-critical meeting since the UN summit in Paris five years ago.
“The government expects to deliver a long-term emissions reduction strategy before COP26 (the Glasgow summit),” Mr Taylor said.
Mr Morrison last week vowed not to be “bullied” on climate change as the moderate and conservative wings of the Liberal-National government slugged it out behind closed doors over energy and emissions policies.
While Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce, George Christensen, David Gillespie and former minister Matt Canavan have called for greater support for the coal industry, a group of Liberals including Tim Wilson, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin, Trent Zimmerman and John Alexander warned their constituents wanted greater action.
Mr Taylor said the government believed the answer was not a new tax or more bureaucracy but “practical change” driven by science and technology.
“The pathway to meaningful impacts on global emissions is through development and deployment of new technologies,” Mr Taylor said.
“That is where Australia can have the biggest impact on reducing global emissions.”
He confirmed the government expected to deliver a long-term emissions reduction strategy before the Glasgow summit.
About 80 countries around the world are committed to such a target, but many are small economies with small greenhouse gas outputs.
The European Union is the biggest bloc on the brink of signing up to net zero, with major economies such as China, the United States and India showing little sign of similar ambition.
All Australian state governments have adopted the target, with Mr Morrison committing to review the goal as part of last year’s Pacific Islands Forum.
When asked directly about the 2050 target, Mr Morrison said he would “never make a commitment like that if I couldn’t tell the Australian people what it would cost them”.
Mr Taylor and Mr Morrison have continued to declare Australia would “meet and beat” its 2030 Paris Agreement targets of reducing emissions by between 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels, potentially without using Kyoto carryover credits.
As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, the government has also committed to achieving net zero emission globally in the second half of the century.
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Not Much is likely with our mega coal corrupt government.