Liberals senator Andrew Bragg has warned he will resign from the frontbench if his party abandons Australia's commitment to the Paris climate agreement, as pressure intensifies for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley to dump the Coalition's net zero target.
The shadow housing minister said the Liberals risked alienating voters and betraying future generations if they walked away from their international climate obligations.
"The Australian people are worried about climate change and so are we — and that’s why I would have thought that the most reasonable position here would be to stay in the Paris [agreement], maintain a commitment to do a better job on net zero and maintain a goal," Bragg told ABC's Insiders on Sunday morning.
"I think if you have anything less than that, then you are giving up on the idea that you will try and reduce emissions for future generations. After all, we are the trustees for future generations."
Bragg said he would quit the frontbench if the Liberal Party withdrew from the Paris agreement, though he said such a move was unlikely.
"Well, sure, but I don’t imagine we will ever leave Paris. We are not fringe dwellers," Bragg said.
"Most Australians want us to play our fair role in terms of reduction, so I just don’t think we are going to be leaving the Paris agreement."
Under the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, the world needs to be drawing down and storing greenhouse gas emissions at the same rate it is producing them by 2050, known as net zero.
Pressure on Ley grows
Bragg's comments come amid deepening internal divisions over the party's climate and energy policy, now a key test of Ley's leadership reign.
The Liberal Party will meet in Canberra mid-week to settle its official position on net zero and energy policy, ahead of a joint Coalition party room meeting next Sunday.
Last week, the Nationals voted unanimously to abandon their support for a net zero mandate, saying they still supported emissions reduction "but not at any cost".
Nationals leader David Littleproud said the party was "still committing to reducing emissions", but said there was a "better, cheaper, fairer way to address it".
The decision is believed to have prompted pressure from some senior Liberals to dump both the 2050 goal set under Scott Morrison, as well as the net zero emissions policy entirely.
But other moderates, including Bragg, have pushed back against absorbing the Nationals' views and said Australia could not "sit out" of international climate standards.
"I don’t think you can have a fatwa on two words. I think that’s too silly for words, frankly," Bragg said.
"I think at the end of the day, this is the international standard on decarbonisation. So Australia cannot sit out of its own international standard."
"It's ridiculous."
Ley has avoided committing to a position, saying the Nationals were "entitled" to their own position and that they would speak about "next steps".
Tehan hints at coal subsidies
Meanwhile, opposition energy spokesperson Dan Tehan has flagged that subsidies could be offered to keep current coal-fired power plants operating for longer, while he also backed ramping up gas supplies.
"We need to make sure that we're sweating those coal assets ... and also that we can get more gas into the system much more quickly," he told Sky News on Sunday.
He said it was "absolutely crucial" to work with the states to ensure the fossil fuel would stay in the system to bring power prices down.
He also backed Ley's leadership, telling Sky News that "the majority in the party room said … she was the person that should lead us to the next election".
"Let's make sure that after the worst election defeat that we have suffered since the Second World War, that we start to get a policy platform that we can enunciate and take to the Australian people."
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
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