Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not mince words, while criticizing Opposition leader Peter Dutton over the move to shelve Labor’s 2030 gas reduction target if the Coalition came to power.
Dutton said Saturday if the Coalition formed the next government, it would do away with Labor government’s legislated 2030 emissions target — a 43% cut compared with 2005 levels, and instead prioritize on gas and nuclear energy sources to reach net zero by 2050, News.com reported.
Albanese accused Dutton of walking away from climate action, and called him “worse than Scott Morrison on climate change.” Morrison, during his term as prime minister between 2018-22, was known for his controversial environmental policies and refusal to set net zero goals along with other world leaders.
Dutton’s argument against opposing renewable energy sources is that Australia cannot meet the target, as it would be heavily dependent on decarbonization of the national energy grid.
However, Coalition’s move would constitute breach of Australia’s commitment to the Paris climate agreement to work towards climate change mitigation within the UN framework. The signatories to the climate treaty also have to achieve interim targets by 2030.
“His decision to abandon the 2030 target means he is walking away from the Paris Accord. If you walk away from the Paris Accord, you’ll be standing with Libya, Yemen, and Iran, and against all of our major trading partners and all of our important allies,” Albanese told mediapersons.
Three countries — Iran, Libya and Yemen — are yet to formally approved of the Paris Agreement.
However, Shadow Energy Minister Ted O’Brien said Australia cannot meet the 43% reduction in emissions by 2030, regardless of whichever government was in power, ABC News reported.
“If Labor is saying that failure to deliver on 43% by 2030 constitutes a breach of the Paris Agreement, they have a lot of questions to answer because that is precisely the pathway they are taking us down,” O’Brien said. “We are going towards a failure. Labor has gone sideways at best on emissions.”
Official projections by the Climate Change Authority, released in November, showed Australia would achieve 42% of the goal by the end of the decade, still falling short of its interim target, prompting the Labor government to make further commitments.
“We were on track for 42% last December and since then we’ve had significant new policies announced that will further enhance the opportunity [to cut emissions],” he said. “I’m very confident not only that we can get there but, importantly, that we must get there.”
Environments groups have warned that if Australia breached the climate agreement, it could affect trade negotiations and harm international relations in the Pacific.
