Key Points
- Labor has unveiled its 2035 climate target after cabinet approval in Sydney.
- The government also announced new funding to help industry decarbonise, and to drive down electricity prices.
- Environmental groups had called for a target of no less than 80 per cent.
The federal government has committed to a new climate target to cut emissions by 62 to 70 per cent by 2035, on 2005 levels.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled the target range on Thursday, alongside Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean, after it was signed off by cabinet.
Albanese said the government had accepted the independent advice of the Climate Change Authority, calling it a "responsible" measure that is backed by science and a "practical plan to get there".
"It is the right target to protect our environment, to protect and advance our economy and jobs and to ensure that we act in our national interest and in the interest of future generations," he told reporters in Sydney.
Alongside the 2035 target, the government also announced a $5 billion Net Zero Fund within the National Reconstruction Fund to help industries decarbonise, and $2 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to drive down electricity prices.
"This will help to accelerate long-term renewable projects right across our nation," Albanese said.
When asked exactly how much power bills will come down, Albanese did not provide a figure.
"What we know is if we do not act, [there] will be a cost of the economy ... [That] will be lower wages, lower growth, less jobs," he said.
Bowen said the global shift to clean energy presents the "biggest economic transformation" since the Industrial Revolution, and that the government had decided to "seize that opportunity".
"It presents Australia with our best ever economic opportunity if we get this right, if we make the right investments at the right time, we can grow our economy, create good jobs for Australians," he said.
Bowen said the target range comes with a "robust" plan to get there.
The target range builds on Australia's existing target of a 43 per cent reduction in emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, on the path to net zero by 2050.
The Paris Agreement, which Australia and 194 other parties adopted in 2015, aims to limit global average temperature increase "well below 2C" and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C compared to pre-industrial levels.
Under the agreement, members must increase their emissions targets every five years and cannot water them down. Nations that signed up must submit their new targets by the end of this month.
'Ambitious but feasible'
The Climate Change Authority had previously suggested a 2035 target range of between 65 and 75 per cent would be achievable.
Its final advice, published on Thursday, recommended a range between 62 and 70 per cent, which the government accepted.
Kean said the target requires Australia to cut its emissions by half over the next decade.
"It is ambitious, but it is absolutely feasible," he said.
He said the authority considered over 500 submissions from stakeholders, the "best available science" and economic modelling to build a "bottom-up analysis" and arrive at its advice.
"We have looked at providing a target that will future-proof industry, future-proof economy and future proof our way of life and protect the planet," he said.
Environmental groups had called on the government to set a target of no less than 80 per cent below 2005 levels, while business groups had warned that a target higher than 70 per cent would risk more than $150 billion in exports and send companies offshore.
Bowen said the announced target was the "maximum level of achievement possible".
"You [have] heard me say many times that the target must be two things: ambitious and achievable. A target over 70 is not achievable — that advice is clear. We have gone for the maximum level of ambition that is achievable," he said.
Modelling undertaken by Treasury, also released on Thursday, showed that under a 65 per cent target, the economy would be $2.2 trillion bigger by 2050, and create 5.1 million jobs.
Chalmers said a "disorderly transition" to net zero would leave the economy $1.2 trillion smaller.
"The only scenario which would be worse than a disorderly transition would be to abandon net zero completely. That would be a disaster for our economy," he said.
The target announcement follows the release of a landmark climate assessment which found that no Australian will be immune to climate risk that will be "cascading, compound and concurrent".
'Weak, dangerous and drastically short', Greenpeace says
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said the government's "timid target range" suggests Albanese "is more committed to the future of the coal and gas industries than he is to the safety of Australian communities and nature".
The range "falls significantly short on all measures of what's needed", ACF's climate and energy program manager Gavan McFadzean said, suggesting the government's plans prepare Australia "only to meet the bottom end of the range".
Environmental organisation Greenpeace Australia Pacific branded the range as "weak, dangerous and drastically short of what's needed to meet the urgency of the climate risk".
Shiva Gounden, Greenpeace's head of Pacific, said: "The Albanese government's new climate plan is an affront to communities across the Pacific and Australia facing the escalating impacts of dangerous climate change."
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) said the target range is "ambitious" and will require significant investment and major reform.
BCA chief executive Bran Black said: "We strongly support net zero by 2050, and getting this right is about balancing the needs of future generations, while ensuring Australian industry can continue to compete in the global market today."
What have the Opposition and the Greens said?
Greens leader Larissa Waters labelled the government's target range a "shameless capitulation" to coal and gas corporations.
"Labor's utter failure of a climate target is a betrayal of people and the planet and a win for coal and gas corporations," she said.
Speaking later on Thursday, Opposition leader Sussan Ley said the government's target range fails on both "cost and credibility".
"There is nothing in this announcement that demonstrates to Australians how much it will cost. And that's not reasonable for households, for businesses, for the hard-working manufacturers in this country who want answers and are seeing their electricity bills skyrocket," she said.
"If the government wants to have an honest conversation with Australians, they need to be upfront about announcements they make in critical areas of energy. Energy is the economy. They need to be upfront about what it will actually cost."
The Coalition has been divided over its stance on net zero, with Liberal MP Andrew Hastie threatening to quit the frontbench if the commitment isn't dumped.
Ley said on Thursday that the Coalition is unified in its plans to oppose the government's target, saying: "I can assure you there was absolutely no division in opposing Labor's latest piece of train wreck energy."
She said the party's own energy policy is going through a "detailed policy development process".
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press
