Developing world must act on climate, Scott Morrison says

Scott Morrison has declared it is ‘not good enough to reduce emissions in advanced economies’.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison attends a working breakfast with Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

Scott Morrison has declared it is “not good enough to reduce emissions in advanced economies” and made the case for developing nations, including China, to make meaningful contributions towards emissions reductions.

The Prime Minister argued that a technological solution would help bridge the divide between advanced and developing nations in responding to climate change and said a failure to bridge this divide would result in a global failure to reduce emissions.

In an address at the Paris headquarters of the OECD, Mr Morrison said he was not criticising developing economies but arguing for a practical solution.

“I want to stress this, because what it is a call to do is ensure that the solve that is in place for advanced economies on addressing climate change has to be the same in developing economies,” he said.

“Carbon emissions don’t have national accents. They don’t speak with that wonderful Irish lilt or an Australian twang. They’re emissions. They don’t understand borders.

“The special envoy from the US, former secretary Kerry, put this incredibly well, and I commend him for it, when he said at the outset of his mission that the US could reduce emissions to zero but if that is not achieved in the developing world, and he specifically mentioned China, then the goal of addressing climate change will not be achieved.”

Mr Morrison used the trip to the OECD headquarters to pay tribute to the historic mission of the organisation and welcome the elevation of his former finance minister, Mathias Cormann, to OECD secretary-general.

“It’s the first time the OECD has been led in this role by an Australian and the first time the OECD has been led by an individual from the Asia-Pacific and to my Asia-Pacific members who are sitting around the table, I’m sure that is equally welcome,” Mr Morrison said. “The OECD spans not just one part of the world but all the world, whether it’s for the Americas or the Indo-Pacific across Europe and the UK.”

Mr Morrison said the OECD faced a range of challenges including a global trading system and rules-based order under “serious strain and threat” as well as the need to drive “ambitious and effective action on climate change.”

Reaffirming his conviction that the debate on climate change needed to shift towards outcomes, he argued that performance matters “at least as much as ambition … These two should be kept strongly in balance.”

Mr Morrison also said the rising strategic competition between the great powers was changing the “security and prosperity environment” in the Indo-Pacific region, which was increasingly characterised by rapid military modernisation, tension over territorial claims, heightened economic coercion and the under­mining of international law.

He also cited enhanced dis­information, foreign interference and cyber threats as key problems that would make the international landscape more complex for the OECD and its mission to uphold liberal democratic market-based models and values. He said for dem­ocracies to demonstrate their effectiveness on the international stage, they needed to demonstrate their effectiveness “at home, in their own societies, in their own economies”.