Coalition split over Labor’s climate target

The Coalition is divided over whether to back Labor’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, with investors warning a lower commitment will divert capital to other countries.

If a Coalition government lowered Australia’s 2030 target, it would breach the Paris Agreement, Investor Group on Climate Change director Erwin Jackson says.

The Coalition is split over whether to back Labor’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, with climate investors warning a lower commitment would contravene the Paris Agreement and see global capital diverted to other countries.

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said he did not believe Opposition Leader Peter Dutton would go to the election vowing to reduce the government’s 2030 target, while Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce labelled the 43 per cent commitment as “crazy”.

Investor Group on Climate Change director Erwin Jackson said if a Coalition government lowered Australia’s 2030 target, it would breach the Paris Agreement, potentially forcing the ­nation to withdraw from the international treaty.

“The rules and the norms set by the Paris Agreement are clear and important to provide long-term policy stability to unlock investment,” Mr Jackson said.

“Backsliding on an existing commitment would contravene the rules and the norms of the Paris Agreement and would undermine investment in Australia in the transition to net-zero emissions, which both major parties agree on.”

Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien said the Coalition was reviewing its climate policies. “Any emissions reduction targets – and policies to achieve them – need to reflect the latest economic developments, emissions projections, and the role of new and emerging technologies,” Mr O’Brien said.

Speaking in New York on Wednesday, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will say the renewed environmental ambitions of Australia and the US will bring the nations closer together.

“To be frank, it has been difficult for Australia to play a constructive role, let alone a leadership role, in international climate discussions when we have been too focused on domestic debates over climate for the last decade,” Mr Bowen said.

“That period is over. Australia is back and is a constructive partner for ambition in international discussions,” he said.

Big business has weighed in on the Albanese government’s tougher safeguard mechanism climate policy with the nation’s biggest aluminium companies warning wide-scale technology may not be rolled out until after 2030 while AGL Energy remains cautious on carbon market integrity.

The operators of 215 large ­industrial facilities – contributing 28 per cent of Australia’s emissions – are weighing up Labor’s overhaul of the mechanism, which anchors Labor’s 2030 pledge to cut emissions by 43 per cent and is due to kick in from July 2023.

Aluminium, considered a “hard to abate” sector, faces a challenge implementing electrification or adapting to hydrogen for process heating by 2030, according to the Australian Aluminium Council.

“The council is concerned that if technology development lags, or energy infrastructure is delivered in the manner and at the pace it has historically, this will become the rate limiting step in the transition,” the council said in its submission.

Australia’s largest polluter, AGL Energy, said the nation’s existing carbon crediting framework must be considered, amid criticism of a government plan to provide free carbon credits to high-emitting companies, without requiring them to represent actual pollution cuts.

“The Safeguard Mechanism should support Australian Carbon Credit Unit markets by generating competitively priced safeguard mechanism credits rather than contributing to ACCU market volatility by offering a low-cost, ineffective unit of compliance,” AGL said.