Malcolm Turnbull says Scott Morrison will give in to international climate pressure

With Trump out of the White House, Scott Morrison will cave in to international pressure on emissions, Malcolm Turnbull says.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: Richard Dobson

Malcolm Turnbull has predicted Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison will cave to international pressure and sign up to a net zero emissions target by 2050 after clinging too closely to Donald Trump’s rhetoric.

“I’m confident Morrison will move to that. He probably over-channeled Trump. He was clearly dazzled by Trump and went full-in with that in a number of areas.

“All the talk about being against globalism and so forth was channelling ‘the Donald’, including on climate,” Mr Turnbull told a business summit on Tuesday.

“The reality on climate is all of our major trading partners have a net zero target and the Biden administration will return to the climate fray with a real enthusiasm,” Mr Turnbull said. “He’s announced John Kerry - who is a real climate action evangelist with huge global credibility - will be the climate tsar and so Australia has to get on board.”

Mr Morrison says net zero carbon emissions by 2050 was achievable but Australia has not committed to a hard energy target for the mid-century.

“We will pay a heavy price for this in international trade, believe me. We are kidding ourselves to think the Europeans will not have climate in the Australia-Europe free trade agreement,” Mr Turnbull said.

“We’re absolutely kidding ourselves and I can see the Americans making that a condition of trade agreements right around the world. What Scott has to do now is pivot or dismount - whatever you want to call it. Whether it’s done elegantly or not it doesn’t really matter - as long as he does it.”

The Morrison government’s campaign to get Mathias Cormann elected to the top OECD job may be undermined by Australia’s climate position, Mr Turnbull said.

“You can imagine the concerns, in European capitals particularly, saying ‘Hang on these are the Australians who want Mathias to be secretary general of the OECD and where do they stand on climate?’”.

“It’s not a good look. So if we want to be taken seriously in the global community as a strong and committed and voice of conviction then we’ve got to be able to step up at least to the targets and commitments that all of our trading partners have done.”

“The Trump era is over - at least for four years - and we don’t want to be looking like a Trump-lite refuge in the southern hemisphere.”