Tue 26 October 2021:
Coal-rich Australia presented a long-awaited net-zero emissions plan for 2050 on Tuesday, but refrained from establishing more extreme targets ahead of a key UN climate summit.
Australia is one of the world’s largest coal and gas exporters, and its conservative government has fought climate action for the majority of its eight-year term.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the adjustment, saying that Australians wanted a policy that “does the right thing on climate change and secures their future in a changing world”.
He, on the other hand, declined to tighten 2030 emissions reduction targets, which are viewed as crucial for effective climate change action, while promising to fight to keep mines open as long as possible.
“We want our heavy industries, like mining, to stay open, remain competitive and adapt, so they remain viable for as long as global demand allows,” he wrote in an opinion article released by his office.
Australia had previously promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels, a target Morrison claims Australia will “meet and beat.”
“We won’t be lectured by others who do not understand Australia,” he wrote.
“We will also not be breaking the pledge we made at the last election by changing our 2030 emission reductions targets.”
The announcement comes just days before Morrison departs for next month’s United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
India and China, two of Australia’s biggest coal clients, have already stated that they will phase out thermal coal, and technological advancements have made the future of metallurgical coal, which is used to create steel, increasingly uncertain.
More than 130 nations have established or are considering a target of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, according to the UN, which it calls “imperative” for preserving a habitable environment.
(with agency)
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