The Labor government’s 2035 greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 62-70%, announced on September 18, is not only inadequate, as the (ACF) and other environmental groups have pointed out, but a cynical exercise in greenwashing.
“In order to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, global emissions must at least halve by 2030,” said Richard Denniss, Executive Director of .
“A cut of at least 75% by 2035 is what was required and it’s a missed opportunity for the government to show it is serious about climate change.
“In a short period of time, we have seen the government extend the North West Shelf, release the grim climate risk report, and announce a non-ambitious climate target.
“The government can’t have it all ways, and if it is serious about meeting climate targets, it will stop approving coal and gas.”
Australia cannot remain the world’s second biggest exporter of carbon emissions and claim to work for a safe climate and yet that is what this target seeks to do through creative accounting in the official calculation of emissions.
According to the Climate Change Authority, Australia’s greenhouse emissions have decreased by 27% since 2005. However, most of this reduction is based on estimates of how much carbon emissions may have been reduced, or absorbed, by land use changes.
However, excluding that and measuring actual emissions in energy generation, mining, industry, transport and agriculture, the reduction since 2005 is just 3%, according to Dr Emma Lovell.
Labor’s approval since 2022 of 31 means real domestic greenhouse gas emissions will rise.
Furthermore, as most of the gas and coal is exported, its biggest contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is conveniently not taken into account by this target.
Australia is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter, after Russia and the United States. However, because Australia exports so much coal, it is the exporter of fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions.
The new measures that Labor proposes to meet its new 2035 target mostly amount to subsidies and grants to private corporations.
They are outlined in a report named and include:
• A new $5 billion “NetZero Fund” within the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) to “support major investments by large industrial facilities in decarbonisation and energy efficiency, and scale up manufacturing low emissions technologies”.
• $1 billion to make “clean fuels” here.
• $170 million for “initiatives to help households and communities decarbonise, improve energy efficiency” and to “accelerate the roll out of kerbside and fast electric vehicle charging options”, and
• $2 billion more to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for it to invest in the “rapid roll out of renewable projects to drive down electricity prices”.
These subsidies will also go to developing carbon capture and storage (CCS), an unproven technology that scientists have as an excuse to continue fossil fuel expansion. CCS may even increase emissions.
The ACF’s Gavan McFadzean said that Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s “timid target” showed that he is “more committed to the future of the coal and gas industries than he is to the safety of Australian communities and nature.
“Until the government stops approving new and expanded coal and gas projects it will continue to put more Australians in harm’s way.
“A target range of 62–70% falls significantly short on all measures of what’s needed, with the government’s plans preparing Australia only to meet the bottom end of the range.
“The 70% figure is greenwashing, while the plans are not there to reach it. It’s awful to see the government shrug and accept the worst-case scenarios in the as if they are Australia’s inevitable future: Regular coastal inundation; more heat-related deaths; worse bushfires and more environmental damage.”
This target range condemns communities to ongoing climate harm, McFadzean added.
The Climate Council’s Amanda McKenzie that with global temperatures, already 1.3°C above pre-industrial levels, and current policies tracking toward 2.7°C warming, the NCRA projections for a 3°C warming scenario “represent Australia’s likely future without immediate course correction”.
“The Albanese Government can reduce climate risk by cutting climate pollution at its source: Coal, oil and gas. The first step is legislating the strongest possible 2035 climate target and stopping new polluting projects.
“Scientific analysis shows that even a 75% cut by 2035 would align with global heating of over 2°C. That would be very painful for many Australians, doubling of heat waves days, fourteen times more coastal flooding and catastrophic impacts for our farmers, fisheries and reefs.
“The longer we delay the deep and sustained cuts to climate pollution we need, the harder it becomes to protect communities from escalating heat waves, floods and bushfire weather. That’s why we must do everything we can, as fast as we can now this decade, to protect people and the places we love.”
“Australia cannot afford a timid 2035 target when our own government data shows the catastrophic costs of inaction.”