Nationals poised to make call on net zero emissions
The direction of national climate and energy policy could soon be decided at a special party room meeting held to discuss this important issue.
Leader David Littleproud and his colleagues will meet in Canberra amid speculation they will follow the lead of the party’s federal council, which voted on Saturday to withdraw support for net zero emissions from its platform.
The outcome of the party room meeting was not predetermined but Mr Littleproud harshly criticized the push to reach net zero “while the rest of the world is turning”.
“We can’t make the world lighter,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“We will connect ourselves to the rest of the world, we will not get ahead of them, we will stay connected to them.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose not to directly address the possibility of a National climate policy linking Australia’s emissions cuts to the performance of other countries when asked on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
“But on the issue of climate change, climate change is real,” he told reporters in South Korea.
“Climate change has an impact.”
“I advocate for the whole world, not just Australia, to take action on climate change because we all need to take action.”
The leader of the national competition said he believes in the human contribution to climate change, but thinks the response should be a greater emphasis on adaptation.
“There’s really no one way we can address this; not just emissions reduction, but also adaptation,” he said.
Sunday’s party room meeting will be informed by the Page Research Center report commissioned by the Nationals.
Net zero policy has become a sore point within the federal coalition, with the Liberal Party undertaking its own energy policy review following its election defeat in May.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley said she did not want to reach net zero “at any cost”.
Under the Paris Agreement signed a decade ago, Australia and other member states are required to increase emissions reduction targets every five years and cannot dilute them.
The Labor government has committed to net-zero emissions reductions by 2050 and is pursuing an interim target of reducing emissions by 62 per cent to 70 per cent by 2035.
The goal of providing 82 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030 is key to meeting climate goals.
Australia’s first National Climate Risk Assessment was announced in September; Households, the economy and the environment will be hit hard by uncontrolled climate change.
