‘Not over’: Liberal MPs fearing calamity in city electorates launch rearguard action to salvage net zero policy | Liberal party
Liberal MPs launch rearguard action to save net-zero emissions pledge; In a warning, the party warned that if the Coalition abandoned the target it would “cost urban voters dearly” and damage Australia’s international reputation.
South Australian senator Andrew McLachlan said the internal campaign to retain the net-zero emissions policy was “not over” despite growing expectations that the Liberals would follow the Nationals in ditching the climate target.
McLachlan and moderate Liberals Andrew Bragg, Jane Hume and Maria Kovacic were on Tuesday publicly resisting a right-wing faction-led push to scrap not just the Scott Morrison-era promise of net zero by 2050 but any firm commitment to carbon neutrality.
Tim Wilson also rejected suggestions that his colleagues should align with the National Party, saying the Liberals were not “National party-lite” and would determine their own position.
A special Liberal party room meeting is expected to be held later this month as Sussan Ley tries to restart the policy row that has become a major threat to her leadership.
While giving up net zero would potentially fend off a leadership challenge, perhaps from the right-wing Angus Taylor or Andrew Hastie, it would result in a serious retreat from the MPs who helped him win the top job.
Maintaining a commitment to net zero emissions is a red line for some Liberal MPs and they will consider leaving the National Party if the policy is abandoned altogether.
Bragg said the Liberals were better off sticking with the National Party but added “you have divorce laws for a reason.”
McLachlan, Canberra’s most pro-climate Liberal, warned colleagues about the potential costs, including at the ballot box, of abandoning the net zero commitment.
Scrapping net zero would put the Liberals even further behind Morrison and Peter Dutton on climate policy; These companies’ emissions policies – or lack thereof – have been considered key factors in the loss of city seats to Labor and the turquoise independents in the last two elections.
“Those who want to evade our global commitments seem to have convinced themselves that they can do so at no cost,” McLachlan told Guardian Australia.
“If we retreat from achieving net zero, we will pay a heavy price for it with urban voters. Our reputation as a nation that keeps its promises will be diminished. Our Pacific friends will be betrayed.”
Bragg, Kovacic and Hume cited the need to maintain Australia’s obligations under the Paris agreement as a justification for maintaining net zero emissions.
“Well, the Paris agreement is the red line there. You have to be in the Paris agreement, because if you weren’t, then you’d be in a bunch of countries like Iran, Libya and maybe two or three other countries,” Bragg told ABC News Breakfast.
Kovacic told Guardian Australia that any break with the Paris climate agreement would harm Australia’s standing globally and the economy.
Bragg is open to a compromise in which the Coalition commits to achieving net zero emissions after 2050, noting that the text of the Paris agreement stated for the second day in a row that net zero emissions must be achieved this century.
However, this position would constitute a breach of Australia’s obligations under Paris, which requires countries not to back down from their commitments.
The Albanian government has committed to Australia’s net zero emissions by 2050, with interim targets of 43% by 2030 and 62%-70% by 2035 compared to 2005 levels.
Climate change minister Chris Bowen said net zero emissions by 2050 was “not a political construct, it’s a scientific necessity”.
“The LNP seem to think they know better (than the world’s scientists),” Bowen said.
“They know better than the IPCC, who say if you want to keep the world at 1.5 degrees of warming you need net zero by 2050. It’s not a nice-to-have, it’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a big deal. Now, in Australia, this was a bipartisan situation.”
In the joint party room on Tuesday morning, Liberals and Nationals MPs were briefed on the process to determine the Coalition’s net zero position before Christmas.
Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan said the policy review process was expected to be completed “soon”, possibly paving the way for a special Liberal party room meeting on November 23 before the final sitting week of the parliamentary year.
After Tehan’s group reports back to the Liberal leadership team, Liberal members of the shadow cabinet will consider the findings before all Liberals are given a chance to resolve the matter.
Once this process is complete, Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud are expected to meet to finalize a common Coalition policy, which is expected to abandon net zero policies.
Conservative South Australian Liberal MP Tony Pasin told the meeting he believed the two sides of the debate were “closer than people think”.
