Labor creates history with Australia’s first legislated climate target

The Albanese government’s signature climate change reform was passed into law on Thursday, legislating for the first time a national emissions reduction target and opening a political fight over the cost to households of cutting carbon emissions.

Australia has set itself a target to cut greenhouse emissions by 43 per cent from 2005 to 2030 and under the government’s Powering Australia plan the bulk of reductions will come from increasing the volume of clean energy in the electricity grid, as well as capping emissions from the nation’s 215 biggest polluting facilities.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen with the assistant minister Jenny McAllister in the Senate chamber on Thursday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“The passage of the climate change legislation sends a message to the world that Australia is serious about driving down emissions, and serious about reaping the economic opportunities from affordable renewable energy,” Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.

“Legislating these targets gives certainty to investors and participants in the energy market and will help stabilise our energy system.”

The government secured crucial support from independent senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock after agreeing to accept amendments to boost transparency around the scientific advice provided to the government by the Climate Change Authority.

Pocock has said while the government’s target falls short of what is needed, it represents a “starting point after a decade of inaction under the former Coalition government”.

Australia’s commitment to the Paris Agreement pledges emissions reduction levels consistent with limiting global warming as close as possible to 1.5 degrees. Labor’s 43 per cent target is consistent with 2 degrees warming or more. Independent MPs including Zali Steggal, Zoe Daniel, Allegra Spender and Helen Haines are advocating for a 60 per cent cut in greenhouse gases by 2030 – the minimum that scientists say is needed to act consistently with the Paris goal.

Labor has cited modelling by analysts Reputex that purported to show its plan would replace coal with cheaper renewables to cut power bills by $275 as soon as 2025, with a target to raise the proportion of renewable energy in the electricity grid from 30 per cent to 82 per cent by the end of the decade.

Opposition Climate Change and Energy spokesperson Ted O’Brien said he would hold Labor to account for any power price rises, which he said would be caused by Labor’s pledge to raise the share of renewable energy in the market.

“The Labor Party came to the Australian people and … promised [power] prices would come down” O’Brien said. “As power bills go up it is on them, as businesses close, it is upon them.”

Power bills have been going up in recent months largely due to a global ban on Russian coal and gas exports, which has driven up the cost of key energy inputs to Australia’s electricity market. On July 1, the annual electricity default offer jumped $227 in NSW and $61 in Victoria.

The Australian Energy Regulator usually sets the default market offer on May 1 but former energy minister Angus Taylor pushed that process back until after the May 21 federal election.

Steggall, the member for Warringah, said she was “really excited the bill has gone through” but said it fell short of the climate action needed to comply with the Paris Agreement and she and her fellow teal independents will campaign to boost Labor’s climate ambitions.

“Labor is under pressure from us because they fear more seats being lost to the Greens or independents if it doesn’t genuinely act on climate. So for example, the opening up of further gas licenses in the Beetaloo Basin and more [coal] mines is incredibly problematic for them,” Steggall said.

“Seventy-five leading economists all made submissions to the government in relation to the Jobs and Skills Summit and cost of living pressures that the only way we can alleviate cost of living pressures is by accelerating our transition to clean technologies, and acting on climate.”

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel also welcomed Labor’s legislated target as a “good start” but said she would “press the government to take the additional actions necessary”.

“We cannot be legislating carbon emission cuts on the one hand and expanding our carbon emissions on the other,” Daniel said.

Wentworth MP Allegra Spender She will push the government to deliver greater incentives for electric vehicles and to reduce fossil fuel subsidies, measures which she said could free up funds to spend on clean energy and reduce cost of living pressure on households.

Indi MP Helen Haines said while the 43 per cent target was too low it nevertheless was “an important step in climate action in Australia”.

She said fears over cost of living pressure from climate policy must be directed at lack of action on emissions reduction because the effects of global warming were adding the impost from severe weather and disrupted food supply chains.

“I am concerned that households are already bearing the costs of climate change itself and failing to act. Households are already looking at higher power bills, higher insurance premiums as the risks of extreme weather and bushfire increase and higher costs of food,” Haines said.

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