5% emissions target should go as another study shows Aus being left behind

Australian Greens It is time for the Gillard government to abandon the low ambition of a 5% emissions target and low carbon price, the Australian Greens said, after another study showed Australia's global trading partners and competitors leaving us behind. The study released today by Frank Jotzo, chair of the ANU's Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, shows that the conditions have already been met for Australia to lift its 5% unconditional emissions target to 15%. This comes after the Climate Institute's comparison of global implied carbon prices last week showed Australia being left behind. A similar study will be undertaken for the multi-party climate change committee. "Now that Australia is finally moving towards putting a price on pollution, we have to lift our sights to the kind of ambitious action that will transform our economy," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said. "Increasingly troubling scientific reports showing the impact of the climate crisis is already having on our planet are being joined by ever clearer signals that a global clean-tech race is well underway and Australia risks being left behind. "A 5% emissions target or a low carbon price not only jeopardises our coasts, the already dry Murray Darling and the Great Barrier Reef and all the jobs and communities they sustain by holding back global action, but it also locks out our chances of developing the exciting new industries of the future here in Australia. "I am looking forward to the work the climate committee will do comparing the climate commitments and efforts of countries around the world, but the government already has all the evidence it needs to move on from the 5% target which is holding back progress. "The EU and UK are publicly discussing lifting their emissions targets because they see the economic benefits of doing so. The UK's legislated target of 34% cuts below 1990 levels by 2020 already eclipses anything the Gillard government has on the table. "Scotland has found that it will easily meet its ambitious target of meeting 50% of its electricity needs with renewable sources by 2020 and is now lifting that target to an impressive 80% by the end of this decade. "China, Japan, South Korea and various states in the USA are all lifting their sights to more ambitious action as they reap the benefits of jobs, clean air and water and more from beginning investing in the economic transformation towards a low carbon future. "It is time to set aside the low ambition that holds us back, ditch the 5% target and set our sights on the transformation a strong carbon price will bring." < Prev   Next >