A group representing mining, retail, manufacturing, banking and energy businesses has formally backed climate change legislation proposed by the independent MP Zali Steggall saying Australia needs to set a net zero emissions target for 2050 and lay out a path to get there.
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) used a parliamentary submission to say Ms Steggall’s plan proposed a “science-based, risk-management” approach that lined up with how businesses and its shareholders were increasingly responding to climate change.
Guardian Australia reports Ms Steggall’s private member bill, which was announced last February before being delayed due to COVID-19, and is now the focus of a parliamentary inquiry, includes a 2050 net zero target and would require the government to set a rolling emissions budget to meet it.
It would also introduce risk assessment and adaptation plans, establish an independent climate change commission and incorporate the government’s technology investment roadmap.
The BCA’s submission, signed by the chief executive Jennifer Westacott, said it supported “strong action” on climate change, which required “setting a national target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and, critically, outlining a pathway to achieve this goal”.
“The high-level policy framework outlined in the proposed legislation represents an important starting point for the development of a clearly defined, nationally guided and coordinated climate policy response,” Ms Westacott wrote.
Guardian Australia reports she said a clearly articulated climate policy destination and a pathway to get there would be good for the community as it would lead to new job opportunities, greater economic resilience in regional Australia, a stronger competitive position internationally and sustained growth in productivity and real incomes.
More than 100 countries have set carbon neutrality or net-zero emissions targets, but Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government continues to resist setting a timeframe.
It has said it expects the country to reach the goal in the second half of the century and wants to get there “as soon as possible”.
However, the emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor told the ABC in November reaching net-zero by 2050 would require a 43 per cent cut, compared with 2005, by 2030 and “that will destroy jobs, that will require taxes, that will impose costs on Australian energy consumers and raise the price of electricity”.
The government is expected to face increased pressure to reverse its stance and to set more ambitious 2030 commitments before the next major climate conference in Glasgow in November.
The new United States president, Joe Biden, has promised to use “every tool of American foreign policy to push the rest of the world” to do more.
His climate envoy, John Kerry, last week said all countries must increase ambition before the Glasgow summit “or we will all fail”.
“Failure is not an option,” he said.
The British government, which is hosting the conference, has emphasised the need for significantly increased short-term targets and deeper emissions cuts by 2030 if the world is to live up to the United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement goal of pursuing efforts to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Ms Steggall’s legislation is backed by several other crossbenchers and the Australian Greens Party.
The opposition Labor Party is yet to make its position clear beyond saying it welcomed “any constructive action” on climate and would continue to engage with the independent, who won the Sydney seat of Warringah from the former prime minister Tony Abbott in 2019.
Ms Steggall said the submissions showed there was broad support for a sensible climate plan as the world headed towards net zero emissions.
EcoNews is an independent publication that relies on contributions from its readers.
WE’RE BUILDING A PLATFORM WITH A CLEAR FOCUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT, CULTURAL AND SOCIAL GOOD. CONTRIBUTE AND TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE AN IMPACT.
If you value EcoNews, but are unable to contribute via sponsorship or advertising we ask that you promote our online store The Native Shop – www.nativeshop.com.au via your social media to assist us to fund this valuable service.
