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The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has rebuffed a push by her state counterparts to be kept in the loop about the Morrison government’s plans for climate action ahead of international talks in Glasgow in November – telling them she is not responsible for mitigation efforts.
Several sources have confirmed to Guardian Australia there was a stoush in Thursday’s meeting between Ley and a number of state ministers, both Liberal and Labor.
State environment ministers insisted their federal counterpart should assert responsibility for reducing the risks of runaway climate change, and commit to consultation and collaboration with the states, given managing climate risk was integral to effective environmental stewardship.
But Ley is understood to have said she could not commit to brief or coordinate with them on climate change mitigation efforts because that would go beyond the bounds of her portfolio responsibilities. Angus Taylor has responsibility for climate action in the Morrison government.
Environment, energy and climate change were previously in a single portfolio federally when Josh Frydenberg held the portfolio, but that has changed under the Morrison government.
As they pointed out to Ley, some of the state ministers retain both policy responsibilities, and considered it untenable for the federal environment minister to effectively opt out of responsibility for climate mitigation efforts.
Ley told her state counterparts she would cooperate on adaptation and resilience measures that were within the scope of her federal environment portfolio.
That ultimate landing point was expressed in the communique released after Thursday’s meeting, which said: “Environment ministers discussed the vital role cooperation will play in building a more climate resilient Australia.
“Recognising the differing but complementary roles Australia’s three levels of government have in responding to a changing climate, ministers discussed priorities to ensure our natural resources, environment and water infrastructure are more resilient to climate impacts from drought, heatwaves, bushfires, and other natural disasters.
“Ministers agreed to work together to support the development of the Australian government’s 2021 National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy to set up a roadmap towards national climate resilience.
“The commonwealth also agreed to engage with states and territories in the lead up to COP 26.”
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Ley’s spokesman said: “The minister was entirely happy to consult with the states on matters within her portfolio [but] clearly in an official communique she could not give a formal undertaking on issues that are in the remit of other ministers.
“This is a pretty fundamental principle that states would have been aware of.”
Ahead of the COP in Glasgow, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, has invited 40 world leaders, including Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, to a virtual summit on the climate crisis next week – an event coinciding with Earth Day.
Biden is expected to announce what the administration has termed “an ambitious 2030 emissions target” at next week’s summit now the US has re-entered the Paris agreement.
While Morrison’s language on achieving net zero by mid-century has warmed considerably since Biden won the US election, and a number of federal Liberals favour the Coalition making a concrete commitment, it is unclear whether Australia will flag any new policy commitments next week, or use the summit as an opportunity to defend Australia’s record.
Ahead of the summit, a coalition of environment, aid and church groups have taken out full-page advertisements in newspapers urging Morrison to increase his level of ambition and provide concrete commitments.
One of the world’s most influential climate scientists, Michael E Mann, told Guardian Australia this week Australia would need to step up with concrete commitments because US climate negotiators were not going to be “fooled by the smoke and mirrors the Morrison government appears to be employing to distract from their clear record of inaction on climate”.
Ahead of Thursday’s meeting of environment ministers, Ley had nominated waste policy, climate adaptation and reform of national conservation laws as the commonwealth’s environmental priorities for 2021.
Ley articulated those priorities in a letter to her state counterparts in February, telling them those priorities had been suggested by Morrison.
Federal and state environment ministers did not meet at all in 2020. The lack of coordination created concern for environmentalists given the damage inflicted by the bushfires at the beginning of 2020.
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