Extract from ABC News
Have you ever had a meeting with someone only to find you both came away with very different impressions about what happened?
It would seem that happened to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his UK counterpart Boris Johnson.
But perhaps that is a generous interpretation of events.
The two leaders had a phone hook-up last Friday ahead of next month's G7 meeting, which the UK is hosting and Australia (along with South Korea, India and South Africa) is invited to attend.
Climate change was among the issues the two leaders discussed, but the exact nature of that discussion was less clear.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, Scott Morrison talked about addressing climate change and spruiked his "technology, not taxes" approach:
"They discussed efforts to address climate change and pathways towards net zero, including reducing emissions through technology."
But it would seem the technology plan didn't strike Boris Johnson as that remarkable.
The equivalent statement from Downing Street suggested the discussion about climate had quite a different focus.
"The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of all countries setting ambitious targets to cut carbon emissions, and encouraged Australia to commit to reaching net zero by 2050 which will deliver clean jobs and economic growth."
The two statements are not explicitly contradictory, given both talk about net zero emissions, a key point of policy debate in the international approach to tackling climate change.
But reading the Australian version of events, one might think there was general accord on the issue, while the British description suggests Scott Morrison was put under pressure to do better.
Johnson wants Australia to step up on climate
There's little reason to doubt Mr Johnson would take the opportunity during this phone call to pressure Australia to lift the ambition in its emission reduction targets.
The UK is hosting the next round of international climate talks later this year in Glasgow and it will be a critical meeting, as nations are required to update their ambitions on reducing emissions as it has been five years since the Paris Agreement was struck (well, it was six years ago, but COVID-19 led to a one-year delay).
Mr Johnson has embraced the international challenge of limiting global warming by committing the UK to significant emissions reductions — a 78 per cent cut on 1990 levels by 2035 — and using its diplomatic position to prevail upon other nations to show similar ambition.
Scott Morrison, on the other hand, has so far resisted pressure to follow the lead of his conservative counterpart in the UK, as well as the new Democratic administration in the White House.
He's maintained Australia's modest commitment of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2030.
Australia is expected to announce an update on that policy at the Glasgow climate change conference in November, as required under the Paris Agreement, but not one that would match action promised by many developed countries.
Previous efforts to improve global action on climate change have faltered when developing nations believed advanced economies weren't taking sufficient responsibility for the problem, and developed nations were unwilling to make concessions that didn't apply to the emerging economic powerhouses.
The success of the Glasgow conference will depend on action by both developed and developing countries — which is why Boris Johnson wants Australia to step up.
Morrison aiming to keep the peace at home
Scott Morrison, on the other hand, wants to maintain the delicate ceasefire within the Coalition on climate change.
A rudimentary 2030 emissions reduction target, a considered but nebulous plan to promote clean energy technology and vague hopes of reaching net zero emissions "as soon as possible" have been the magic ingredients to mollify the opposing camps within the Liberal Party and the Nationals.
There is a political imperative to maintaining the peace within the parties, given the propensity for climate change policy to take the scalps of Australian prime ministers. The rather limited description (or "read out", as it's known) of the phone call from Mr Morrison's office matches that objective: demonstrating that climate change is on the agenda, but glossing over the growing imperative to do more.
The fact that the UK statement is publicly available online for all to see while Australia's is only distributed privately to select media outlets provides further insulation for Mr Morrison.
But as the climate conference in Glasgow draws nearer, the international pressure will increasingly shift from private phone calls to public exhortations.
When that point is reached, sparse statements will not be enough to hide the gulf between Australia's position and the progressive actions of our allies.
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