Scott Morrison bristles at calls for a change of pace on climate

Scott Morrison says Australia will decide its climate change policies, not other countries, as South Korea commits to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

‘One thing the British Prime Minister and I agree on is that achieving emissions reductions shouldn’t come at the cost of jobs in Australia or the UK’: Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Sean Davey

Scott Morrison says Australia will decide its climate change policies, not other countries, as South Korea becomes the nation’s latest major trading partner to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in made the announcement on Wednesday, following similar statements by China and Japan, intensifying the long-term threat to $110bn-a-year in coal and natural gas exports.

The Prime Minister said on Wednesday he was “not concerned about our future exports”, but maintained Australia would make its own sovereign decisions in the national interest. “We’ll set our policies here. Our policies won’t be set in the UK, they won‘t be set in Brussels, they won’t be set in any part of the world other than here,” he said.

“It’s Australia’s jobs, it’s Australia’s economy and it’s Australia’s recovery from the COVID-19 recession that matter to me and my cabinet and the decisions we take.”

He made the statement after a call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who urged Australia to take “bold action to address climate change”.

According to a statement on the call from Mr Johnson’s office, he “emphasised the importance of setting ambitious targets to cut emissions and reach net zero”.

He told Mr Morrison the UK experience showed “driving economic growth and reducing emissions can go hand in hand”.

A read-out of the same call from Mr Morrison’s office said Mr Johnson “welcomed” Australia’s emissions reduction initiatives “and strongly endorsed our focus on unlocking practical pathways to reducing emissions”.

Mr Morrison said Mr Johnson “totally understands Australia’s sovereignty when it comes to making sovereign decisions about our future”.

“One thing the British Prime Minister and I agree on is that achieving emissions reductions shouldn’t come at the cost of jobs in Australia or the UK,” he said. “It shouldn’t come at the cost of higher prices for the daily things that our citizens depend on. It’s about technology, not taxes, (that’s) what we talked about last night.”

Mr Morrison said Australia’s record on fighting climate change “speaks for itself”, noting Australia’s carbon emissions had fallen by 14 per cent since 2005, compared with 1 per cent for New Zealand and 0 per cent for Canada.

Mr Moon told South Korea’s national assembly the country would “actively respond” to the global “climate emergency” by going carbon neutral by 2050.

Earlier this week, Japan vowed to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.