According to the latest Guardian Essential poll a clear and growing majority of Liberal-National voters support the government of the Prime Minister Scott Morrison adopting a net zero target for 2050, with support for that proposition climbing 12 points in a month.
The latest fortnightly survey shows a majority of Australian voters’ support net zero either strongly or somewhat (75 per cent, up four points in a month), and 68 per cent of Liberal-National voters in the sample hold that positive view.
Last month, the proportion of supportive Liberal-National voters was 56 per cent.
The decisive shift in positive sentiment from Liberal-National voters follows calls from within the government to consider the 2050 target, and the opposition Labor Party’s leader Anthony Albanese’s decision to adopt the net zero position.
That move immediately reignited the climate war between the two major parties in the Australian parliament.
While the Liberal-National government is leaving its options open on a 2050 target, its current messaging is suggestive of substituting a technology roadmap for a target.
The debate about net zero dominated parliament yesterday with the government attacking Labor for adopting the target in the absence of a fleshed-out plan to get there, while Labor and the Sydney independent MP Zali Steggall are pressuring the government to detail the impact of failing to act to prevent dangerous global heating.
More than 70 countries and 398 cities say they have adopted a net zero position. Every Australian state has signed up to net zero emissions by 2050, and these commitments are expressed either as targets or aspirational goals.
Net zero is also supported by large Australian companies and by the lobby group, the Business Council of Australia.
Given the resumption of partisan argument about climate policy and tensions within both of the major parties about the future of coal, voters in the Guardian Essential survey were asked a number of questions about their attitudes to a transition to low emissions.
A majority of voters in the survey (75 per cent) believe improvements in renewable energy means it will become less necessary to burn coal for electricity, and 65 per cent said both advances in technology and global agreements on emissions reduction will result in coal becoming uneconomical to extract in the future.
A majority (64 per cent) said if Australia was serious about climate action, it would need to get out of coal as soon as possible.
All of those propositions attract majority support amongst Liberal-National voters (70 per cent, 60 per cent, 54 per cent).
However, a majority in the sample (61 per cent, and 72 per cent of Liberal-National voters) also said Australia should continue to export coal for steel production, even if it stopped exporting coal for use in power plants.
Voters were also asked about the future of coal-fired power plants and just under half the sample (47 per cent) said coal plants should continue to operate as long as they are profitable, but the industry should not be subsidised or expanded.
Australian Greens Party voters were the most supportive of moves to shut down the coal industry (62 per cent) with that position endorsed by 36 per cent of Labor voters and 21 per cent of Liberal-National voters in the sample.
The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus three per cent and the sample size this fortnight was 1090 respondents.
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