Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government has given little sign that it will sign up to the deep pollution cuts recommended in the latest report by the United Nations panel of experts on climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has called for global emissions cuts of up to 70 per cent by the middle of the decade, if nations want to meet their goal to limit temperature growth to two degrees Celsius.
The report, designed to guide negotiations heading into the next round of global climate talks in Paris in 2015, also says the growth in greenhouse gas emissions has accelerated in the past decade, despite the efforts already made to curb pollution.
ABC News reports the Liberal-National Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the government shared the goal to limit growth to two degrees above pre-industrial levels.
“We think it is important to take real and effective action on climate change, and we think that the work of the international community should be accepted and is important,” he told ABC News.
“We’ll obviously consider the period beyond 2020, as we’ve always said, in the lead up to the late 2015 international conference.”
However, as ABC News reports Mr Hunt did not commit to the scale of emissions cuts suggested by the IPCC; a 40 to 70 per cent cut to the 2010 level of emissions by the middle of the century.
“Let’s achieve our initial targets, because there’s been a lot of talk about targets without actual real work in many places around the world,” he said.
“We are very close to our 1990 and 2000 emissions today, so Australia’s had a major increase in economic growth, in population, but we have held our emissions almost close to stable.
“That’s been a real achievement over two decades,” Mr Hunt claimed.
Typically playing down the effect of Australia’s carbon price, which his government is trying to repeal, Mr Hunt said; “Over the past year, the first year of the carbon tax, there’s been virtually no change in our emissions; no decrease in our emissions.”
The Labor opposition’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, said in a statement the report showed the most cost-effective strategy was to cap emissions with a trading scheme and promote the use of renewable energy.
Australian Greens Party leader Senator Christine Milne said the IPCC’s work should lead the government to improve efforts to reduce carbon emissions.
“That’s the message to Prime Minister Tony Abbott: abandon your plan to get rid of carbon pricing; abandon your plans to wreck the renewable energy target; and instead recognise Australia has to do its fair share,” she said.
“We’ve already got the legislation in place; stick with what we’ve got and get behind the innovation and the excitement of the new carbon economy.”
As ABC News reports the various responses to the report demonstrate the intractable nature of the climate policy debate in Australia.
The government points to the report as added evidence to its argument that the carbon price has not been cost effective.
Labor and the Australian Greens focus instead on the seven per cent reduction in emissions from electricity generation, because it is the sector of the economy fully covered by the carbon price scheme.
“If we’re serious about trying to constrain global warming to less than two degrees, we need to get off fossil fuel energy and onto renewable energy, to back the Renewable Energy Target (RET); to make sure that we not only keep it, but actually expand it so that we can bring down our emissions,” Senator Milne said.
The Greens also point to a study, produced by Schneider Electric, which has found the 20 per cent renewable energy target for 2020, for large scale projects would actually keep prices lower for consumers than if it was scrapped.
A government review of the RET is currently underway.
Mr Hunt said he would not pre-empt the review, but there would be a RET under the Coalition.
