Extract from The Guardian
MPs also urge Scott Morrison to use carryover credits to meet Australia’s 2030 target ahead of weekend global climate summit
The federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, will meet with his New South Wales counterpart, Matt Kean, after Scott Morrison raised concerns with Gladys Berejiklian about her government’s recently legislated commitment to build 12 gigawatts of clean energy as part of a transition road map.
For the second week in a row, federal Coalition MPs used their regular party room meeting to raise concerns about the NSW agreement, and to insist the Morrison government use carryover credits from the Kyoto period to meet Australia’s 2030 target rather than meeting the commitment through practical emissions reduction.
As well as battling internal headwinds as the parliamentary year draws to a close, Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that the prime minister does not yet have a speaker’s spot at a global climate ambition summit scheduled for 12 December, despite telling parliament last week he intended to use the online event to “correct mistruths” about his government’s heavily criticised record on emissions reduction.
There has been speculation in some media that Australia had been granted a speaking slot for the summit and would use it to confirm it would drop its bid to use controversial “carryover credits” to help meet the 2030 emissions target it set as part of the Paris agreement.
Morrison has already telegraphed the government’s shift on using the carryover credits to business leaders in a recent speech, but the prime minister’s positive signal has concerned some conservatives and prompted arguments that Australia should use the credits to meet the 2030 target because it’s entitled to.
More than 70 countries had been approved to speak at the climate summit as of Tuesday night, but there was no confirmation Australia was included. There was speculation in diplomatic circles that the Morrison government had already been told it had not offered enough to secure a speaking slot.
The summit co-hosts – Britain, France and the UN – have warned leaders they would need to submit ambitious new emissions reduction targets, financial commitments or adaptation plans to win a slot. The Australian government declined to comment.
Diplomatic sources said a Morrison government proposal to drop a plan to use the credits would not be seen as significant progress, pointing out it was heavily criticised at the Madrid climate summit a year ago. The Australian government has said it does not plan to join more than 100 countries in setting a target of net zero emissions by 2050 and will not increase what is considered an unambitious 2030 emissions target, a 26% to 28% cut below 2005 levels.
While it remains unclear whether Morrison will be given a speaking role, there is also speculation the government is working up new commitments to the Pacific to help the region manage climate change that could be outlined later this week.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said there was a serious question about whether Morrison had misled parliament by telling it he would participate in the climate summit.
“It appears Scott Morrison’s vow to not cheat by using carryover credits isn’t enough to earn him an invitation, especially when countries like the UK are bringing plans to reduce emissions by 68% by 2030,” Bandt said. “This is embarrassing. We need the prime minister to fess up: are you speaking at the summit or not?”
In response to arguments that the Coalition should not pivot on climate policy, and Kyoto credits should be deployed, Morrison told Coalition MPs on Tuesday that Australia had earned them legitimately. He said the government had made “no announcement” yet about whether it would use Kyoto credits to meet Australia’s 2030 target, but if that was where the government ended up, it would reflect overachievement.
Related to the debate about the shift on carryover credits has been internal angst in Canberra about the Berejiklian government passing laws to build 12 gigawatts of clean energy – roughly equivalent to the country’s entire existing large-scale renewable capacity – and 2GW of energy storage in the state over the next decade.
Last week, the NSW plan was opposed in the federal party room by the Liberal MP Craig Kelly and Nationals Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce. This week Joyce repeated his objections and was joined by the NSW National David Gillespie.
Joyce later told parliament a plan “shutting down four coal-fired power plants in NSW” should be resisted because “believing that our greatest challenge is carbon abatement is missing the real game”.
“The real game is going to be making sure that our nation is able to ride through the troubles and traverse the River Styx of economic and political intrigue that will be coming upon us in the next year,” Joyce said.
Morrison told the party room he had raised the NSW plan with premier Berejiklian. Guardian Australia understands that conversation happened last Friday. Taylor is scheduled to meet Kean, his NSW counterpart, this coming Friday.
Taylor has expressed public concerns about the state plan, saying he was troubled by the lack of consultation on the energy policy. Taylor recently declared participants in the energy market needed to avoid “reactionary schemes that appease vested interests and ignore the interests of customers” – adding “the triumph of hope over reality and reason must be avoided”.
The commonwealth also requested the modelling the state government undertook to support its proposals but has not yet received it. Guardian Australia understands the Morrison government is now undertaking its own modelling on the impact of the project.
The NSW plan is legislated with multiparty support. Canberra could withdraw support for a memorandum of understanding on energy policy reached with the state to protest the scheme but a spokesman for Taylor indicated that wasn’t on the agenda.
“It is up to the NSW government to transparently explain the costs and impacts of their policies to the NSW people,” the spokesman said.
Kean told Guardian Australia the state had no intention of revisiting its legislated transition plan. He said he would “work constructively with the commonwealth to make sure we get the best deal for the consumers of NSW”.
The state minister said he was “proud” to have delivered a comprehensive transition plan that would keep power prices down and keep the lights on.
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