Australia sets modest 2030 emissions target

Tony de Brum, the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, which is a low-lying Pacific island nation, criticized the Australian government’s target as well.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott revealed the country’s post-2020 carbon emissions reduction target – which could be upgraded to 28 per cent – saying it was both economically and environmental responsible.

“There is a definite commitment to 26 percent but we believe under the policies that we have got, with the circumstances that we think will apply, that we can go to 28 percent“.

This is significantly weaker than recommended reductions by the country’s Climate Change Authority – which Abbott previously tried to axe.

Abbott said the new target places Australia in accordance with vows from the United States, the EU and Canada, however information aggregated by the Atmosphere Organization research organization puts Canberra’s position underneath each of the three.

“A low target will not be great for ambition”, he said, adding, “We are the third-biggest exporter in absolute terms, we have a high carbon intensity, and we’re a big exporter”.

John Connor, CEO of the Climate Institute, based in Sydney, said emerging nations that have not yet submitted targets, like India and Brazil, will be watching Australia closely.

But it would also rely on “other forms of abatement”, including possible technological advances.

Yesterday, Abbott in a recorded statement reported by several Australian news outlets insisted the government will make a “strong and responsible” contribution to the global climate fight.

The Australian government has announced plans to cut carbon emissions by at least 26 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.

CLAIM: Australia’s target is the highest reduction on a per capita basis.

Australia is one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per head of population because of its heavy reliance on abundant reserves of cheap coal to generate power.

In effect, it extends the exceptionalism that Australia sought for itself at the original Kyoto talks in 1997, when it managed to secure an increase in emissions as its target.

The only countries to do less than Australia in this analysis, are Canada and New Zealand.

Next to these countries, Australia is quite simply the bottom of the pack, according to the Climate Institute’s figures.

These are hardly concerns that are unique to Australia, and the Coalition has deservedly been damned in many quarters for its “I’m all right, Jack” recalcitrance at a time when other governments around the world have now accepted the need for concrete action to prevent runaway climate change. He cited evidence that the nation could be achieving much more ambitious goals at little additional economic cost – although the deeper the cuts, the harder its coal industry would be hurt.

The Prime Minister negotiated the new target in a cabinet meeting last night that scaled back draft proposals to cut Australian emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, fearing a hit to growth from the restriction of fossil fuels.

Australia is now aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 5 per cent from 2000 levels by 2020, and is one of the last advanced economies to set a target beyond that year.