The OECD has delivered a scathing assessment of the Morrison government’s climate change policies, warning it needs to massively accelerate the pace of Australia’s decarbonisation efforts if it is to meet even its baseline targets, and saying there is no way to avoid hitting harder the nation’s biggest polluters in energy, transport and agriculture.

Prepared by OECD staff overseen by Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, the report repeatedly laments the lack of a nationwide carbon price and raises questions about whether the government’s current technology-based approach will be sufficient to put the economy on a net zero by 2050 trajectory.