Shadow climate and energy minister Ted O’Brien releases statement after ambiguous stance at debate with Labor’s Chris BowenPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe shadow climate and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, has confirmed the Coalition is committed to the Paris agreement, just hours after he refused to rule out withdrawing Australia from the accord if Peter Dutton won the election.In another case of Coalition mixed messaging on policy, O’Brien left the door ajar to abandoning Paris if it was in the “national interest” during a debate with the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, in Canberra on Thursday. Continue reading…Shadow climate and energy minister Ted O’Brien releases statement after ambiguous stance at debate with Labor’s Chris BowenPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe shadow climate and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, has confirmed the Coalition is committed to the Paris agreement, just hours after he refused to rule out withdrawing Australia from the accord if Peter Dutton won the election.In another case of Coalition mixed messaging on policy, O’Brien left the door ajar to abandoning Paris if it was in the “national interest” during a debate with the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, in Canberra on Thursday. Continue reading…
The shadow climate and energy minister, Ted O’Brien, has confirmed the Coalition is committed to the Paris agreement, just hours after he refused to rule out withdrawing Australia from the accord if Peter Dutton won the election.
In another case of Coalition mixed messaging on policy, O’Brien left the door ajar to abandoning Paris if it was in the “national interest” during a debate with the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, in Canberra on Thursday.
O’Brien’s comments appeared at odds with a position Dutton articulated in January, and were publicly contradicted by Liberal frontbenchers Jane Hume and Michaelia Cash, who reaffirmed the opposition’s support for the global pact in separate interviews on Thursday afternoon.
At the debate in Canberra, O’Brien was asked if the Coalition was prepared to pull out of Paris if it was deemed to be in the national interest. He replied: “I can commit that we will always act in the national interest and we will always be upfront with the Australian people” – leaving open the possibility of repealing Labor’s 43% 2030 target and pulling Australia out of the global climate accord.
But afterward, O’Brien confirmed the Coalition would remain in Paris if successful on 3 May.
“To be clear, we [the Coalition] are committed to the Paris agreement, including net zero by 2050,” O’Brien said in a statement.
“But under Labor’s trajectory, Australia’s chances of hitting the 43% target by 2030 is pure fantasy.
“Unlike Labor, we’ll be upfront with Australians about how we assess these factors and how they shape our targets.”
The opposition is not putting forward either a 2030 or 2035 climate target at the election, with Dutton last year confirming those commitments would only be set when in government. Labor is awaiting Climate Change Authority advice before setting its 2035 target.
O’Brien said a Dutton government would assess the economic implications of Australia’s current emissions trajectory before setting its own targets.
He claimed Labor’s climate targets would be impossible to achieve, accusing Bowen and Anthony Albanese of misleading the public.
The latest annual climate update – prepared by Bowen’s department and published in November – showed emissions were projected to fall at least 42.6% on 2005 levels by the end of the decade, just shy of the 2030 legislated goal.
O’Brien’s comments indicated the Coalition favoured lower targets, which would require repealing or amending Labor’s climate laws and submitting new goals to the United Nations.
The Paris accord requires countries to progressively raise their ambition, meaning Australia would be in breach of its commitments if it put forward a lower target.
The Coalition are currently committed to net zero by 2050.
In January, Dutton ruled out following Donald Trump’s lead on withdrawing from the climate accord if he won the forthcoming election. At the time, Dutton suggested Australia would be targeted with overseas tariffs if it pulled out, which would harm exporters.
Thom Woodroofe, a senior international fellow with the Smart Energy Council, said abandoning the agreement would make Australia an “international pariah again” on climate action.
“If Australia were to leave the Paris agreement, we would be the only country in the world to follow Trump out the door, subject ourselves to even more trade tariffs in the form of carbon border adjustments, and irreparably damage our relationships in the Pacific,” he said.
During Thursday’s hour-long debate, which was disrupted by a climate protester, Bowen and O’Brien traded barbs over power prices, the cost of nuclear compared with renewables and the modelling underpinning their vastly different paths to net zero by 2050.
Bowen criticised the Frontier Economics modelling behind the Coalition’s new gas plan, saying he’d seen more detail on “menus at a Chinese restaurant” as he brandished the 18-page document.
O’Brien shot back, telling Bowen that Labor’s plan “wouldn’t fit in a Chinese fortune cookie”.
After failing to deliver the $275 annual cut to household power bills promised to voters at the 2022 election, Bowen would not make an energy price prediction.
“Anybody who predicts energy prices in this very complicated geopolitical environment, I think, is making a punt, so I’m not going to do that,” he said.
The Coalition is promising a $3 reduction in electricity prices and $7 off gas bills in the first year of a proposed scheme to force more supply into the east coast market.
The modelling does not forecast prices beyond that.
Leading energy expert Bruce Mountain this week warned the Coalition’s mechanism to force producers to sell more gas into the domestic market – a so-called gas security charge – could backfire, forcing prices up rather than down.
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