Climate policy: Malcolm Turnbull attacks Coalition for opposing a zero net emissions target by 2050

Malcolm Turnbull warns of ‘catastrophic’ consequences unless the Coalition backs a zero net emissions target by 2050.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has lashed out at Coalition opposition to a zero net emissions target by 2050, saying the consequences are “catastrophic” without one. 

Scott Morrison’s predecessor has continued to ramp up his criticism of his old party’s energy and climate change policies since the summer bushfire crisis, in which Mr Turnbull has frequently attacked the Prime Minister directly. 

Mr Turnbull told a meeting of energy business executives in Sydney on Tuesday that opposition to a zero net target was misleading and false. 

“We’ve got to stop this false debate, this misleading debate about whether getting to net zero emissions by 2050 … is something that’s optional,” he said in Sydney on Tuesday.

“Well, I suppose it is optional but it’s an option you don’t want to miss because if we do miss it we know what the consequences are.

“The fires of this last summer will seem like a very, very mild experience compared to what a 3 degrees Celsius (warmer) world will look like.”

Mr Morrison has resisted adopting a zero net emissions target ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow at the end of the year. 

In the Labor Party, right-wing MPs, including opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon and his closest allies, publicly backed Anthony Albanese’s adoption of a zero net emissions target despite their private reservations over the timing of the announcement.

Mr Turnbull reportedly did not directly reference Mr Morrison or Mr Albanese in his Tuesday speech, but said without the zero net target the outcome would “unthinkable, catastrophic, apocalyptic.”

“This challenge is real. The objective of net zero emissions by 2050 is not a ‘nice to have’ or an ‘interesting’ target, a ‘would be nice to do if we can’ or ‘if we can afford it’,’’ he said.

“The alternative is unthinkable — apparently except in the bubble down to the south of us in Canberra.”