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A leading UK climate official says Australia is alone among major countries in that neither its national government nor opposition have a significant climate plan, and frustrating local business leaders.
Nigel Topping, the UN’s “high-level champion” whose role involves global outreach to drive global ambition ahead of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November, said he had not seen another country in which no major political party had a plan to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Morrison government would face “a certain amount of pressure” to lift its ambition on climate at the G7 meeting in England next month, where Australia is one of four invited guest nations. All G7 members have targets to cut emissions by at least 40% below 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net zero emissions no later than 2050.
Topping said on Thursday night that in discussions with Australians there had been a strong sense that state governments and the private sector were committed to the race to net zero campaign, but that business leaders had bemoaned there was “neither a plan nor a counter plan” at a federal level.
“I have heard a couple of times people saying that no one’s got a plan,” he said. “I have picked up from several business voices that there is some frustration over the lack of that.”
Speaking at an early webinar hosted by the Australia Institute, Topping said the international community was pleased the Morrison government had recently begun talking about a target of net zero emissions by 2050 “somewhat tentatively”, but it was not a “signal which matches the ambition and expectations of other wealthy developed countries”.
The Morrison government has not joined more than 100 countries in setting a formal mid-century net zero emissions goal, and has resisted pressure from the US, Britain and the European Union to increase its 2030 target.
Scott Morrison told a recent climate summit hosted by the US president, Joe Biden, that the country wanted to reach net zero “as soon as we possibly can”. The prime minister said his government supported a “technology, not taxes’’ approach. While other developed countries have committed tens of billions to drive action, the federal budget this week included little spending on addressing the climate crisis.
The government’s 2030 emissions target – a minimum 26% cut compared with 2005 – has not been increased since it was set six years ago, and analysts have found it “insufficient” given what is required. Scientists have recommended at least a 50% cut.
Labor has backed a 2050 net zero emissions goal, but dropped its 2030 target after losing the 2019 election. It said it would release a roadmap to get to net zero before the next election. In his budget reply on Thursday night opposition leader Anthony Albanese said positive action on the climate crisis would “create jobs, lower energy prices and lower emissions”, and promised a $100m energy apprenticeship plan.
Topping said Australia would be accepted “with open arms and civilly, as a friend” at the G7 in Cornwall, but would face “a certain amount of pressure given that everybody else has made very clear that they are getting to net zero by 2050”. Australia is one of four guest nations at the G7 along with India, South Korea and South Africa.
He said the US had a target of at least a 50% cut by 2030, the EU 55% and Britain 68% (the latter two compared with 1990 levels). Germany has promised to reach net zero by 2045.
“We know that’s what the leading developed countries need to do to implement the Paris agreement, so I’m sure there will be a lot of polite pressure on the side to join that group,” Topping said.
He said there would also be pressure “to move away from the rhetoric that you can have a plan without a target which, of course, any business person knows is just silly”.
“If you have a plan without a target actually you’re just loosey-goosey,” he said. “A plan starts with a clear target. If you’re going to try to run a marathon you know the mile times that you’ve got to keep clocking up. If you can’t put those up in practice, and if you can’t get the first three miles out in time, then you’re behind in the race and you may never catch up.
“This is not about doing the right thing, or the green thing, or the ethical thing or the responsible thing. It is about all those things, but fundamentally this is an issue of corporate and national competitiveness.”
Pressure on Australia to do more on climate has been growing. Last month the Biden administration said Australia needed to cut emissions faster, and the UK, France and the UN last year refused Morrison a speaking slot at a global climate ambition summit after he did not offer any new policies.
Topping said Australia was well placed to succeed in the race to a zero emissions economy given its abundant clean natural resources. The transition elsewhere was going “exponentially fast”, with targets that appeared aggressive two years ago now looking conservative.
He cited the recently announced Glasgow financial alliance for net zero, under which 160 banks and firms with more than US$70tn in assets pledged to cut their emissions and ensure their investment portfolios aligned with climate science. Moody’s Investors Service said the evident acceleration to reduce emissions to net zero would increase credit risks and the cost of doing business for major emitters.
“The countries that are on the front foot are able to manage and ensure it’s a transition that leads to jobs growth as well as economic growth,” Topping said. “I’m just sort of sensing a bit of confusion and frustration among people I’ve spoken to in Australia that you don’t have that clarity.”
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