Business Council of Australia wants carbon emissions slashed by 2030

Three years after it called a move to cut carbon emissions ‘an economy-wrecking target’, the Business Council of Australia is pushing for aggressive reductions by 2030.

The nation’s peak business body is calling for Australia to halve its carbon emissions in less than a decade as part of its road map to net-zero set to be released next week.

Three years after it called a move to cut emissions by 45 per cent “an economy-wrecking target” the Business Council of Australia is now calling for the country to reduce them by between 46 per cent and 50 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Business Council of Australia president Tim Reed. Picture: AAP Image

The BCA’s conversion to more aggressive action on climate change comes as the Morrison government is deep in internal discussions about how Australia can move to a net-zero target ahead of the Glasgow summit on climate change which starts at the end of this month.

It argues that moving more quickly over the next decade will drive new investment and bring forward action to cut Australia’s emissions in electricity generation.

The target forms part of a major road map by the BCA on how Australia can meet a target of net-zero by 2050 which, if followed, it claims, will generate an extra $890 billion and 195,000 jobs over the next 50 years.

BCA president Tim Reed said Australia’s biggest trading partners were already making this transition and the nation’s businesses were taking action, as are global capital markets.

“By using the existing policy building blocks, we’re presenting an ambitious but achievable plan to manage the economic and technology transition, reducing emissions and leaving Australians better off,” he said.

The plan also calls for the Australian government to increase the preparedness for ­increased natural disasters which are likely to occur under every model of climate change.

The BCA’s plan acknowledges that not all sectors of the economy have the same ability to cut their emissions.

To get around this problem, it recommends the government work to expand and ­develop the offset market which will allow those industries which are stuck as high-emitters to buy carbon credits.

“The best thing we can do for workers and for regional communities to avoid playing costly and damaging catch-up is to plan to prepare for inevitable change,” Mr Reed said

“We can work on closing the technology gap in harder-to-abate sectors where commercially viable solutions don’t currently exist.”

Given the unhappy history of climate change policy in Australia, the BCA has avoided calling for the reintroduction of an emissions trading scheme or a carbon tax.