The federal government says it will push ahead with plans to dismantle Australia's carbon pricing mechanism despite a key report on climate change declaring it "extremely likely" that human activity was the dominant cause of global warming.
That's the strongest statement so far from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said on Friday a human footprint could be found in the warming of the atmosphere and oceans, rising sea levels, melting snow and ice, and changes in some climate extremes.
Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the coalition government would go ahead with repealing the market-based carbon-pricing mechanism set up by the former Labor government despite some calls for a rethink.
He said both electricity prices and emissions rise under the "carbon tax".
"It is the wrong policy approach and the sooner it is scrapped, the better," he said in a statement on Friday.
The coalition will go ahead with plans to reduce carbon emissions by five per cent by 2020 with a capped $3.2 billion fund, to be spent over four years, on activities that cut greenhouse gas emissions like revegetation and improving soil carbon.
The Climate Institute said the government should retain the current carbon laws until it can demonstrate through independent analysis that its policy can achieve emission reductions of up to 25 per cent by 2020.
The modelling from energy advisory firm RepuTex - commissioned by WWF Australia earlier this year - claims the coalition could meet the five per cent target, but would need to spend an extra $5.9 billion per year from 2015 to 2020.
The Australian Greens have called for the coalition to abandon its promise to repeal the carbon pricing mechanism and supporting institutions, such as the Climate Change Authority and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said the IPCC report finds Australia could get hotter and this should be acknowledged when parliament resumes in October or November.
"In the first week of Parliament, we urge all politicians to treat climate change as a serious threat needing serious action, and not a device for cheap political point scoring," the ACF said.
CARE Australia's Climate Change Advisor Edward Boydell said that, as one of the most prosperous countries in the world, Australia had the resources and capacity to take action to effect an urgent shift towards renewable and more efficient energy sources.
