ABBOTT DEFIES CALLS FOR ACTION ON EMISSIONS

Media Release

Mark Butler

Shadow Minister for Environment
 Climate Change and Water

Date:  11 August 2015

Tony Abbott has defied calls for action on climate change by negotiating down Australia’s emissions reduction target in Cabinet. 

As reported in The Australian today, the Prime Minister rolled his Deputy Leader and Environment Minister to commit Australia to one of the weakest emissions reduction targets in the developed world. 

If his own Cabinet couldn’t trust Mr Abbott to take climate change seriously, how can Australians? 

The Climate Institute has indicated Mr Abbott’s target is consistent with global warming of three to four degrees. This is despite the Government and Labor committing to limiting global warming to no more than two degrees, along with China, the US, the UK and all the major economies around the world. 

Tony Abbott’s emissions reduction target needs to be guided by that fundamental commitment. 

Therefore two major questions still remain for the Prime Minister: 

1.    How is Mr Abbott’s target in line with his commitment to limit global warming to no more than two degrees Celsius?

If the Government has modelling to demonstrate this, they should release it immediately.

2.    How much taxpayers’ money will be doled out to the big polluters under the Coalition’s polluters’ slush fund to achieve this target?

Research released last week showed emissions will rise by 20 per cent under Mr Abbott’s plan. Additional research shows the cost could blow out by billions of dollars.

This week, research showed two thirds of Australians want Mr Abbott to take climate change more seriously. All Australians who want meaningful action on climate change appear to have been let down by Tony Abbott.