Australia passes landmark legislation to cut carbon emissions
Australia passed a landmark climate bill on Thursday, bringing the resource-rich country back in line with the global push to cut carbon emissions after years of pushing back against such efforts.
The climate change bill mandates that the country reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The policy was a crucial plank of Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese’s election campaign this year and brings Australia broadly in line with countries such as Canada and Japan. The targets lags behind goals set by the US, UK and EU.
Australia is one of the world’s largest miners and one of the biggest coal exporters. The country had been a climate policy laggard for years with former prime minister Scott Morrison once brandishing a lump of coal in parliament as a testament to his Liberal party’s steadfast support for the industry.
Albanese’s government pledged to hit the targets when it came into power and will have to report annually on its progress on reducing emissions.
Industry groups responded positively to the news, with the Business Council of Australia saying the country was “a step closer to ending the climate wars that have put a handbrake on progress and become a serious economic barrier”.
But analysts and environmental groups cautioned that the bill was only a first step to achieving net zero emissions.
“There’s this air of unreality about them . . . because they’re not addressing the big thing which is no new coal or gas projects and no new oil projects,” said Bruce Robertson, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
But he added that the measures showed the government was trying to provide clarity to investors interested in green energy and new technologies.
“Investors just sit on the sidelines when there’s uncertainty. So you need some sort of framework and at least this government is attempting to provide that . . . over time we will know what it is.”
Amanda McKenzie, chief executive of Australian environmental non-profit organisation Climate Council, said it was too early to declare the move an unequivocal success.
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“On its own, the Climate Change Act won’t reduce emissions . . . It needs to be backed up by credible climate action across every sector of the economy,” she said.
The prime minister’s office said the country had “missed out on billions of dollars in public and private clean energy investment” and the new legislation would “provide the energy policy and investment certainty needed to usher in economic growth and opportunity in a decarbonising global economy”.