Time to head down to the bunker, friends. Because here comes a real bombshell.
“We haven’t got a very good strike rate I have to say.”
“We did recommended more ambitious targets … we talked about a [19 per cent] target for 2020 and that didn’t get much of a run. And we recommended that the large-scale Renewable Energy Target scheme remain at 41,000 gigawatts and that didn’t find favour either. So that’s two strikes – we’ve stepped up to the plate a third time and we’ll see what happens.”
“The fact is that Australia stands to be massively affected by global warming whatever its share of global emissions.”
Though the CCA has not modelled the cost of its recommendations, ClimateWorks and the Australian National University have looked at what a potential Australian economy would look like with ambitious carbon reduction targets. ClimateWorks chief Anna Skarbek explained thusly:
“Our economy can look pretty similar to the way it does today even when we’ve transitioned to low-carbon energy sources. We would still have a strong mining sector, a strong manufacturing sector, our household activities such as driving and flying would continue as they are. The difference would be that we would use equipment that’s powered with low-carbon energy.”
The Abbott Government has stated it will announce its post-2020 carbon emissions targets by mid-year, and will take the CCA report under advisement. These new targets will provide the backbone of Australia’s submissions at the Paris UN Climate Change Conference in December.
