By David Crowe and Katina Curtis
Australia will make a formal pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 after Nationals MPs backed the goal in a tense meeting on Sunday that cleared the way for policies within days to adopt cleaner fuels, electric vehicles, and more renewable energy.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to ask federal cabinet to endorse the target on Monday and finalise a policy package with measures such as investments in hydrogen energy and rewards for farmers to offset emissions. The package will be revealed before he departs on Thursday for a G20 meeting in Rome and a United Nations climate summit in Glasgow where he will be asked to commit to net zero.
Senior nationals head towards their party room meeting on Sunday. Credit: Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
But Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce refused to reveal the conditions he had gained from Mr Morrison over the weekend to secure the agreement, leaving the cost of the deal to be confirmed after cabinet has set the target.
The policy package is expected to forecast more use of electric vehicles in a reversal from the Coalition rhetoric from its attacks on Labor for proposing more EV use less than three years ago, highlighting the wider shift inside the government on climate policy.
Mr Joyce told Mr Morrison of the outcome shortly after a meeting of the Nationals party room ended on Sunday with a majority accepting the target while demanding concessions for regional Australia.
While a core group of Nationals objected to the net zero target, the goal had enough support to allow Mr Joyce to seal an agreement with Mr Morrison and clear the way for new climate change forecasts and policy measures to be revealed after Parliament resumes on Monday.
Mr Morrison responded to the news with a statement that recognised the “challenging” issue for the Nationals and thanked Mr Joyce and his party room for their support.
While Mr Joyce had described the outcome as support for a “process” toward a decision on net zero, Mr Morrison called it “in-principle support” for the commitment.
The outcome was prepared in meetings over the weekend when Mr Morrison and the Liberal deputy leader, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, discussed the climate package and the Nationals’ demands with Mr Joyce and the Nationals deputy, Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.
The message to the Nationals was that the economy had grown strongly over the 15 years since 2005, a period when emissions had fallen by 20 per cent after taking into account land use change.
“Since 2005 when we reduced emissions by more than 20 per cent our economy has actually grown by 40 per cent,” Mr Frydenberg told ABC Radio National last Friday.
Mr Joyce would not reveal the conditions he would seek from Mr Morrison ahead of a federal cabinet decision to endorse the target, saying the details were the subject of a confidential cabinet submission.
“The easy decision would be to say no and join other people in screaming and yelling from the sidelines, having absolutely no influence on where the decisions went,” he told the media shortly before 6pm on Sunday.
“The conditions that we have negotiated are by reason that we have a capacity to do it in the Nationals. And without a shadow of a doubt, the position regional people are in now [is] vastly better than they were before we started those negotiations.”
Mr Joyce said his message to regional Australians was that the Nationals gained a better outcome for them by being inside the government rather than refusing to engage.
But he did not state his position on net zero, saying he had argued the outcome was a matter for the Nationals party room rather than its leaders.
Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud said before the meeting he wanted an outcome that was “set in stone” but the meeting on Sunday ended without any certainty about whether the agreement would require legislation.
Minister for Regionalisation Bridget McKenzie, who a month ago was taking swipes at the “vacuousness” of Liberals supporting net zero, said her party had stood up for “the most marginalised people in this country” during the negotiations.
Former cabinet minister Darren Chester, the member for Gippsland in eastern Victoria, said he supported the net zero target and believed the party room outcome was a “win for common sense” because it would protect regional communities.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean – who in September committed the state to halving its emissions by 2030 – said he wanted Mr Morrison to take a higher 2030 target to the UN summit as well as the net zero pledge.
The government’s policy is a cut of 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 and Mr Joyce and Mr Morrison have both rejected the idea of a bigger formal target.
“At the very least the Prime Minister should take the average targets of all the states and territories here in Australia, which would be around a 35 per cent target,” Mr Kean told the ABC’s Insiders program.
“A projection without a target for 2030 basically says, ‘We don’t take climate change seriously’ or, ‘We don’t trust our projections or the policies to get there’.”
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said all the states agreed with Mr Kean’s position.
“It’s as if the federal government’s isolated from the shift that’s happened, the shift from the business community, the shift from farmers, the shift from state and territory governments,” he said.
However, he wouldn’t commit Labor to any specific increase to the 2030 target, saying the party would settle its policy depending on what happened in Glasgow.
Greens leader Adam Bandt, who wants net zero emissions by 2035, said the government outcome on 2050 was “fraudulent” when faster cuts were needed.
“Delay is the new denial,” he said. “Net zero by 2050 is a fraud if you’re expanding coal and gas and refusing to lift 2030 targets.”
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