Former Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have come together to urge the world not to give up on Australia when it comes to climate change.
World leaders from 40 nations met at the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate from April 23-24. President of the United States Joe Biden hosted the summit to galvanise efforts from major economies to combat climate change.
Australia’s current Prime Minister Scott Morrison outlined plans for a net-zero future achieved through investment in hydrogen and new technologies. But he stopped short of offering a timeline for when our country would achieve carbon neutrality.
That has prompted Kevin Rudd (Labor Prime Minister from December 2007 to June 2010 and June 2013 to September 2013) and Malcolm Turnbull (LNP Prime Minister from 2015 to 2018) to unite. The duo has penned an article calling for action from PM Morrison to catch up with the rest of the world.
“Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s refusal to adopt both a firm timeline to reach net-zero emissions and to increase its own interim 2030 target leaves us effectively isolated in the western world,” the article states.
“It also goes against what we signed up to through the Paris Agreement – which both our governments worked so hard to secure.”
How Australia is now behind the rest of the world
The only carbon commitment our Government has made to date was in 2015. That goal is to reduce emissions to 26-28 per cent by 2030, which is now outdated.
The US, the UK and the European Union have all made commitments to be carbon neutral by 2050, as have Japan and Korea. Even China, the world’s largest emitter, has committed to 100 per cent carbon neutrality by 2060 and has indicated that they could revise that to an earlier date. Paraguay, Iceland, Costa Rica, Sweden and Norway, are already 100 per cent carbon neutral or on track to achieve that goal soon.
Almost 200 countries signed the 2015 Paris Agreement to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and reduce it to 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible. Australia was one of those countries.
Mr Rudd and Mr Turnbull said they needed to own up to that pledge and make a real commitment towards a net-zero future. They pointed to Climate Change Authority (CCA) statements that Australia should aim for a cut of least 45 per cent by 2030.
How the states have kept Australia in the frame for a net-zero future
While there has been no firm timeline placed on achieved carbon neutrality by the Australian Government, the individual states and territories have taken their own initiative. Suppose all renewable energy projects set to commence construction or be completed across the states come to fruition. In that case, Australia will be on target to meet net-zero carbon goals well before 2050.
The former PMs said there was plenty of cause for optimism due to that hard work.
“The world shouldn’t give up hope on our country just yet. Thankfully, there is some cause for optimism,” they wrote.
“Our sun-drenched country has the highest per-capita penetration of rooftop solar in the world. And with the right approach, Aemo (the Australian Energy Market Operator) has said that renewables could go from providing a quarter of electricity market demand on our populous eastern seaboard today to 75 per cent in less than five years.”
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