Net zero emissions: Large firms step up for carbon cuts
Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce on track for a 2050 agreement, as big emitters commit to slashing emissions by decade’s end.
Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce are on track to secure a 2050 net-zero emissions deal by early next week, as the nation’s biggest emitters declare they will unilaterally move to slash emissions by the end of the decade.
The Nationals leader is expected to deliver to Mr Morrison on Thursday his party’s terms for accepting any net-zero deal, outlining its key principles, safeguards and guarantees for jobs and industry in regional Australia.
Senior government sources said that, if talks were successful, a decision would need to be approved by the Nationals partyroom, which is due to meet on Sunday or Monday, paving the way for cabinet to rubber stamp the long-term emissions-reduction strategy before the Glasgow UN climate change conference.
European diplomats were pushing the Morrison government on Wednesday night to take stronger action on climate, with newly returned French envoy Jean-Pierre Thebault saying the nation needed ambitious “short-term and long-term targets”.
“Australia should be able, is able, to lead the way in fighting climate change and demonstrate leadership in the Indo-Pacific, in particular, and defend the interests of its Pacific neighbours, for which climate change is a daily reality, a daily threat,” Mr Thebault told a Smart Energy Council conference.
Italian ambassador Francesca Tardioli said all nations needed to increase 2030 targets at Glasgow. Britain’s High Commissioner to Australia, Vicki Treadell, said the world needed to halve emissions by the end of the decade.
The new wave of international pressure for Mr Morrison to increase his 26-28 per cent medium-term targets comes as some of the nation’s largest companies and heaviest emitters released their own 2030 road map outlining faster action on emissions reduction by the end of the decade. An alliance of airport and hospital operators, retailers, banks, miners and tech companies, which account for 22 per cent of Australia’s current total greenhouse-gas emissions, have joined forces to lead a big business push to slash pollution.
The Climate Leaders Coalition — whose members include Rio Tinto, BHP, Commonwealth Bank, CSIRO, Fortescue Metals, Mirvac Group, Brisbane Airport, AGL and Ramsay Health Care — has warned that “massive climate-related transitions will occur in the 2020s and organisations need to act now”.
“The end of the current decade will be fast upon us and this presents a very different perspective to thinking about the far-off targets of 2050. This is now about action and delivery,” the CLC 2030 road map said.
Rio Tinto chief executive Jakob Stausholm said the mining giant would spend $US7.5bn ($10bn) to halve its massive global carbon footprint by 2030.
“All our commodities are vital for the energy transition and continue to benefit from ongoing urbanisation. We have a clear pathway to decarbonise our business and are actively developing technologies that will enable our customers and our customers’ customers to decarbonise,” Mr Stausholm said.
CLC co-chair David Thodey said the 2030 road map would help guide the nation’s largest companies, employing more than 632,000 people, to meet their medium-term emissions-reduction goals. The road map focuses on the two enablers of emissions reduction: finance and technology. “To achieve those longer-term targets requires significant action this decade due to the extent of the task at hand and the time for projects to be developed and delivered. This decade is about action and delivery,” Mr Thodey said.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor is due to release updated 2030 emissions projections within days, showing that Australia is on track to exceed its Paris commitment to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by the end of the decade. The updated forecast is expected to increase projections into the mid-30s.
While Mr Morrison has said the Coalition will not change the nation’s medium-term target, Anthony Albanese has flagged that Labor will outline greater ambition to reduce emissions by 2030 ahead of the election.
In question time on Wednesday, Mr Joyce said a net-zero decision was close and he expected to report back to Mr Morrison within the next 24 hours. However, he told Sky News later that, if Australia embraced a net-zero target, it would make “no difference at all” to global temperatures and conceded he did not know the economic cost of the plan.
The Deputy Prime Minister, who is working closely with Nationals colleagues David Littleproud, Bridget McKenzie, Keith Pitt and Kevin Hogan, said the party was focused on a speedy outcome and not grandstanding.
Mr Joyce and Mr Morrison are expected to discuss Nationals’ concerns over the next few days before landing on a final position. With record debt levels sparked by the Covid pandemic, the Nationals have avoided tying support for net zero with multi-billion-dollar “ransom demands”.
“We’re not going to be bought off on this,” a senior Nationals source said.
“It’s a proper process where we want guarantees on agriculture, heavy industry and resources. We need to see a pathway where the regions will not be left behind. At this stage, there’s zero dollars attached to our negotiations with the Liberals. The document outlining our set of principles is yet to go to the Prime Minister.”
In a move that would plunge the government into crisis months out from an election, senior Nationals MPs said ministers and cabinet members could be forced to resign if the Liberals proceeded without the country party on net zero. A Nationals MP said that was why a Coalition agreement on net zero was crucial.
Senator McKenzie said it could get “ugly” if Mr Morrison took a target to Glasgow without Nationals support. Mr Littleproud said the party wasn’t holding the Prime Minister hostage.
In a speech to parliament, Mr Albanese said Mr Morrison had been “mugged by reality and dragged towards net-zero by 2050” despite more than a decade of ridiculing climate action. The Opposition Leader said the government was terrified of the future and “incapable of shaping the future to take advantage of the opportunities which are there”.
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