UN climate official warns low ambition is costing Australian growth
Australia’s failure to set a clear net zero target is taking the nation “further and further into an isolated corner on the world stageâ€, damaging its reputation and economic outlook, a senior United Nations climate official has warned.
UK Prime minister Boris Johnson at the launch of the UK-hosted COP26 UN Climate Summit, being held in partnership with Italy in Glasgow in November.Credit:Getty
“Australia and its companies stand to lose both reputationally and economically if it continues to stay on the outer of international efforts, and throws good money after bad,†said Nigel Topping, who was appointed UN High-Level Climate Action Champion by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as host of November’s COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.
“For the first time, there is now a fully unified G7 commitment to net zero by 2050, and Australia’s big client countries are stepping up their 2030 targets as well,†Mr Topping told a webinar on the business case for pursuing net zero targets, hosted by the UK high commission in Australia.
“There is no room whatsoever for any further investment in fossil fuels. And coal power must be phased out by 2030. Full stop.â€
Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Action Champion.“The IEA’s 1.5C report earlier this year could not have been clearer - there is no room whatsoever for any further investment in fossil fuels. And coal power must be phased out by 2030. Full stop.â€
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australia will reach net zero as soon as possible, preferably before 2050, but Australia has not yet increased its goal of cutting emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030 in the face of increasing international pressure in the lead-up to COP26.
Mr Topping told the webinar, which was attended by NSW energy and environment Minister Matt Kean along with executives from the energy sector, that there was “international confusion†about the Australian government’s position given that the Paris Agreement required all countries to update their targets by COP26, “reflecting ‘their highest possible ambition’.â€
Mr Topping said it was rare for him to address an audience in a country that had benefited so much from natural assets that have fed the carbon-intensive industrial revolution of the 20th Century, “but that also sits happily (and some may say, unfairly) on many of the golden eggs that will feed the necessary and now-inevitable transition to a net zero worldâ€.
He was also heartened by the number of Australian companies that were working towards net zero.
He called on Australia and its business sector to join the “Race to Zero†campaign associated with COP26 and not be drawn into a debate over the need to set more ambitious targets or support technology development.
“We clearly need both.â€
Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor told Sky News in August that the government was ambitious to meet and beat its targets.
“At the end of the day, the only thing that matters for global emissions is bringing them down, achievement. We have a very strong track record of achievement,†he said.
“We’re on track to meet and beat our 2030 targets. We’ve updated our projections each year, and we’ve improved them every year we’ve been in government.â€
Nick O'Malley is National Environment and Climate Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a senior writer and a former US correspondent.Connect via email.