Victorian Government fails to meet climate change target deadline by almost a year

Pressure is now mounting for the state government to unveil its landmark climate change targets, almost a year after the due date.

Pressure is mounting on the Victorian Government to unveil its landmark climate change targets almost a year after the decision was due, with industry warning further delays posed a risk to the state’s economic recovery.

Under Victorian law the state government was expected to hand down a decision on emissions targets for 2025 and 2030 by March 2020, but it failed to meet the deadline while battling the pandemic.

However, with the outbreak now over industry experts are calling for the targets to be revealed so businesses can prepare.

Victorian Chamber Chief Executive Paul Guerra said postponing the decision had already created “policy uncertainty”.

“Pausing major policy decisions while the worst of COVID-19 was managed in 2020 was sensible,” he said.

“Now business looks forward to seeing a return to policy certainty in Victoria and to getting emissions reductions back on the agenda.”

It was a view supported by Australian Industry Group Victorian branch Tim Piper who said businesses had been patient.

Regrowth is seen near Tambo Crossing beside the Great Alpine road in the Victorian high country after 2020’s bushfires

According to Environment Victoria CEO Jono La Nauze there was no longer excuses for further setbacks.

“Now the Victorian outbreak is under control, it’s important to announce these targets as soon as possible to guide our economic recovery,” he said.

“We’ve already lost decades in this battle and any further delay just increases the damage.”

In 2019 the government received an independent report on Victoria’s emissions reduction targets from a panel headed by former Labor climate change Minister Greg Combet.

Recommendations included reducing pollution levels between 32-39 per cent by 2025, and a 45-60 per cent reduction by 2030.

Industry experts have previously expressed concern that ambitious 2030 targets could force the early closure of the Yallourn coal-fired power station pushing up power prices in Victorian households.

Energy Australia, which runs Yallourn, said on Wednesday that it would give at least five years notice before shutting as long as “circumstances remain within our control”.

Opposition climate change spokeswoman Bridget Vallence warned consumers would wear the costs especially if businesses were required to rush reforms as the result of the Victorian government dragging its feet.

“Labor’s emission targets were due nearly a year ago, before lockdown restriction came into place,” she said.

Victoria's Energy Minister Lily D'Ãmbrosio told a parliamentary inquiry late last year new targets would be handed down “shortly”

“People and businesses need certainty – the Andrews Labor Government needs to come clean with Victorians and tell them what these targets will be.”

Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio told a parliamentary inquiry late last year new targets would be handed down “shortly” along with pledges for industry sectors and the state’s ongoing climate change strategy.

A spokesman said: “We will have more to say about our interim targets and climate change strategy soon.”

It comes as a new report, authored by top climate scientists and former federal Liberal leader John Hewson, warned Australia needed far more ambitious emissions reduction targets to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels.

While the federal government is currently committed to cutting emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, the report said this would need to be ramped up to 50 per cent to be “Paris-compliant”, and that Australia needed to reach net-zero emissions by 2045.

Labor has committed to this target by 2050 while Scott Morrison has vowed to reach it as soon as possible.

Mr Hewson said the “net-zero” debate had become a “political contest not driven by science but political expediency”.