Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen reveals how we’ll cut emissions
In a Budget-style speech to parliament, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has revealed how Australia will cut emissions by 2030 - and who will be doing the heavy lifting.
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Australia is on track to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by the end of the decade, just under its legislated target of 43 per cent, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has revealed.
In the first Annual Climate Change Statement to parliament, Mr Bowen said Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions had previously been forecast to fall by 30 per cent by 2030, but because of legislative changes since the election, that projection was now 40 per cent.
“Policies we received a mandate for, and are working on implementing including, will lift our result to at least 43 per cent,” Mr Bowen said.
Some of the current shortfall for the legislated target would be made up by moves to boost the uptake of electric vehicles, as well as components of the government’s Powering Australia plan, Mr Bowen said.
In a Budget-style speech to parliament, Mr Bowen suggested more emissions cuts would come from the private sector, through changes to the Safeguard Mechanism.
Currently, 215 companies in Australia have their emissions tracked, but the baseline for these emissions is set to be progressively lowered, forcing companies to improve their environmental performance, or buy more carbon offsets if they fail to do so.
Some business groups have raised concerns those imposed costs could make Australian companies internationally uncompetitive.
But Mr Bowen said 70 per cent of the facilities covered by the Safeguard Mechanism “already have net zero commitments in place” – suggesting the companies needed to get on board if those commitments are to be actually met one day.
The speech also touched on the recent environmental consequences of global warming, including the Black Summer bushfires.
“As frightening as that bushfire season was, the absence of action will see the temperatures and conditions of that year become the norm by the 2040s and become a ‘good year’ by the 2060s,” Mr Bowen said.
The Climate Council said in order to meet its 43 per cent emissions target by 2030, the government would need to cut at least 17 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere per year. This is the equivalent to the emissions from Australia’s entire fleet of light commercial vehicles, the Council said in a statement.
But cuts of greater than 43 per cent were also possible.
Climate Council Head of Advocacy Jennifer Rayner said the Safeguard Mechanism should be turned into “a strong tool for cutting industrial emissions and accelerating our energy transition to a grid powered by clean wind and solar”.
Introducing fuel efficiency standards for cars – a policy the government is now exploring – would also help, Ms Rayner said.
Greenpeace’s Head of Advocacy Glenn Walker said the Albanese government had made a “decent start … but far more radical and urgent action is needed to turn the climate crisis around”.
“Having been elected on a mandate to do so, the government cannot now deal in half measures to achieve an inadequate target. Instead, it must do more and it must do it faster.”
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