Professor Ross Garnaut has said Australia could have avoided the scale of the current devastating bushfires but he warned the situation would continue to worsen if there was not global action on climate change, something he said did not have to come at the expense of the economy.
The economist said he “strongly endorsed” conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s focus on reducing emissions without damaging the economy.
Professor Garnaut added he believed Australian industries could still reap the benefits of the country’s mineral resources in a zero-emissions world.
ABC News reports as this bushfire season has claimed lives and thousands of homes, Professor Garnaut has become a focus in the debate around climate change the federal government’s response.
That is because in 2008 he conducted a widescale review into the impact of climate change on Australia and its economy, and came to a conclusion: the nation would face a more frequent and intense fire season by 2020.
As that prediction comes to pass, the Prime Minister is facing renewed scrutiny on the government’s climate change policy and whether it will change due to the fires.
Speaking to the ABC Insiders program on Sunday, Mr Morrison signalled the current policy of cutting carbon emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by the year 2030 could change.
However, he said that would not be at the expense of the economy.
“We will continue to evolve our policies to meet our targets and to beat them,” he said.
“I’m not willing to put someone’s job at risk, a region’s future at risk. I’m not going to put up their electricity prices to do it, I’m not going to put a tax on them to do it.
“I want to do that within a balanced policy, which recognises Australia’s broader national economic interests and social interest.”
Professor Garnaut today told ABC News the bushfire crisis could have been avoided if Australia, as part of a global effort, had “done a lot more much earlier”.
“The tragedy has been building over a long time,” he said.
“Things will continue to get worse until the world has zero net emissions of greenhouse gases.”
In this zero-emissions world, Professor Garnaut argued Australia could be a world leader by processing its minerals locally using renewable energy.
“I think the point about avoiding cuts to the economy is a sound one,” he said in response to the Prime Minister’s interview.
“The way you make steel in a zero-emissions economy is using renewable energy to make hydrogen, to make steel, instead of using coal.
“The way you make aluminium in a zero-emissions world economy is to use renewable energy to turn bauxite and aluminium oxide into aluminium metal.
“Australia is by far the biggest exporter of aluminium ores and iron ores, and when the world is producing aluminium and iron without emissions, we’ll be the place that’s done.
“So I strongly endorse the Prime Minister’s focus on getting to zero emissions without damaging our economy. It can do us a lot of good.”
The question of how Australia reduces its emissions is still up for debate.
On Sunday, Mr Morrison repeated the government’s mantra that Australia was “meeting and beating” its emissions reductions targets.
He said policies would continue to evolve but did not outline specific plans.
Professor Garnaut said putting a price on carbon was a good option, but one he acknowledged was not going to happen with the current government.
“We would have got to low emissions much more cheaply if we’d had an economy-wide carbon price, but you can get there without a carbon price,” he said.
“For the time being we have to make progress without a carbon price. We can do that.
“We would make faster and cheaper progress later on if later we adopted a carbon price.”
He said the current fires could also prompt a shift in the way the country tackled climate change.
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