Australia criticized over greenhouse-gas reduction target

It will take the proposal to an worldwide meeting in Paris at the end of the year that aims to reach a global agreement on emissions reductions. The baseline for the reductions would be 2005 levels.

They are the ones who will shoulder the burden of climate change, which we dumped on them out of laziness, ideology and sheer partisan bloody-mindedness.

News of the cancelled surveys comes as the Abbott government is expected to release its post-2020 carbon reduction goals on Tuesday that it will take to the global climate summit planned for Paris starting November 30.

“We’ll do this without sacrificing jobs or prosperity”, Abbott said.

“It’s economically responsible because it doesn’t depend upon a great big new tax on everything, or a massive overbuild of renewable capacity in the next few years”.

Australia is now aiming to reduce emissions by 5 percent by 2020, based on the level of emissions in 2000. 2005 was an historically high year for emissions.

“Countries to which we often compare ourselves – like the US and the UK, Germany, countries like that – all have targets in an equivalent time-frame into the 40 percent range, so 41 percent for America, 48 percent for the UK, mid-40s for Germany, ” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “Australians and our precious environment deserve better”. Palese said she expects the government to be a “disrupter” that will be “not arguing for nor participating in the setting of ambitious targets and is likely to commit to something that can pass for a commitment but means we do nothing at home”.

“The key question for investors is whether Australia’s target will deliver a credible signal for capital in managing the transition to a low-carbon economy”, said Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change, which represents institutional investors and has about $1 trillion of funds under management.

“Setting really high levels that are simply impossible to meet, or alternatively impact on energy prices and the competitiveness of Australian industry, is a mistake”.

The proposed figure of 26 to 28 per cent is well below the more ambitious effort climate experts say is needed to limit warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels to avert the worst climate changes.

“On these numbers we would still be the most pollution-intensive economy in the developed world in 2030”.

On Tuesday Labor leader Bill Shorten said the government was trying to “drag Australia backwards on climate change” and it must demonstrate how the target was consistent with the 2-degree warming scenario.

The rationale for the Climate Change Authority’s July recommendations for Australia’s future emissions reductions targets was clear: they were based on the hard science that the world needs to avoid a rise in global temperatures of more than two degrees, and that much of the industrialised world has now committed to strong emissions reduction targets.