The Foreign Affairs spokesperson in Australia’s Labor Party opposition, Senator Penny Wong, has said repealing the carbon price was a “massive own goal” for Australia and a move that damaged the country’s international reputation.
The same group of “climate ideologues” responsible for that are now trying to wreck the government’s National Energy Guarantee (NEG), AAP Newsagency reports Senator Wong told an emissions summit in the Victorian state capital, Melbourne.
Australia is the only country in the world to have repealed a carbon price mechanism, which was out in place by the last Labor government and removed when the conservative Liberal-National government, under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, came to power.
“Australia’s credibility and standing took a tremendous hit when the carbon price was repealed,” she said.
“Before Prime Minister Abbott was elected, Australia had been building a growing reputation as a forward-thinking and serious contributor to global climate change policy.”
However, it had been a lost decade for Australia while the rest of the world has moved on.
Australia has not had a durable mechanism for meeting its emissions and climate targets since 2009, she said.
Senator Wong today committed to reinstating a Climate Change Ambassador if Labor wins government at the next election as a first step to restoring Australia’s reputation.
She’s also committed to broadening relationships with third parties including the Green Climate Fund, Asian Development Bank and particularly stakeholders in the Pacific.
There needed to be “constructive internationalism” if Australia was to be a serious global player on emissions reductions and addressing climate change, she said.
Labor is also committed to keeping the current LNP government’s proposed NEG if it gets the approval of all state and territories by August.
Senator Wong said while it’s not the mechanism Labor would have designed, rather than scrap it Labor improve it.
“While we have strong reservations about the targets built into the National Energy Guarantee, if it does not lock in weak targets it has the potential to provide a mechanism through which we could realise our national targets,” she said.
Labor’s policy is for a 45 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions levels by 2030, and for 50 per cent renewable energy over the same period.
AAP reports more than 500 people are attending the two-day event hosted by the Carbon Market Institute (CMI).
CMI chief executive Peter Castellas opened the summit noting businesses represented at the event are responsible for up to 90 per cent of Australia’s emissions.
A large part of the focus today was on China’s work to reduce emissions, including a presentation by senior government official Jiang Kechun on the country’s emissions trading scheme and potential ramifications for Australia.
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg will deliver the keynote address tomorrow.
