Extract from ABC News
Australia could be pushed to strengthen its 2030 emissions reduction targets by the end of next year if the draft COP26 agreement released by host the United Kingdom is agreed to at the end of the climate summit.
Key points:
- Parties have been urged to "revisit and strengthen" 2030 targets in the COP26 draft agreement put forward by the United Kingdom
- Australia committed to net zero by 2050 going into COP26 but has not updated its 2030 targets since 2015
- The draft also calls for countries to accelerate the phase out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels
The first draft, a seven-page document put forward by COP president Alok Sharma, was released on Wednesday and will now be negotiated by representatives from nearly 200 countries to form a final agreed text to be signed by the time the summit ends on the weekend.
One of the more contentious points in the draft document urges parties to "revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets in their nationally determined contributions, as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022".
Australia committed to net zero by 2050 coming into COP26, but its formal target of reducing carbon emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 remained the same as when it was set in Paris in 2015 when Tony Abbott was prime minister.
The commitment falls below other major developed countries like the UK and the United States and Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been pressed by Pacific Island leaders to do more as their nations face immediate threats from global warming.
While Australia is not mentioned directly in the draft document, it along with big emitters China, Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia has been seen as an outlier at the summit.
Its climate policies also ranked last among nations in the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI).
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson would not be drawn into naming countries needing to step up to the plate but said the final few days of the summit will be pivotal.
"I don't want to single out any particular countries for chivvying or hectoring now," he said.
"I think everybody knows who needs to do what, everybody can see the equations, everybody understands the intricate balance of the negotiations.
The main drive of the UN summit has been to ensure steps are taken to prevent global temperature rises from going above 1.5 degrees Celsius, with scientists warning any further increases would be catastrophic.
The draft also calls on countries to "accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels" but does not provide a firm target or date to achieve the phase-out, and this too will likely be a contentious point for countries reliant on fossil fuels like China, India and Australia.
It "urges" developed countries to "urgently scale-up" financial support for developing countries to respond to their needs to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The push for more regular reviews of climate plans is seen as necessary because countries' current 2030 pledges would lead to 2.4C of warming.
A second draft is likely to be released later this week which could reveal how negotiations over contentious issues have fared.
Draft agreement 'not good enough'
Environment campaigners said the draft still does not go far enough, with Greenpeace's executive director Jennifer Morgan saying the deal did not meet the moment.
"This draft deal is not a plan to solve the climate crisis, it's an agreement that we’ll all cross our fingers and hope for the best," she said.
"It's a polite request that countries maybe, possibly, do more next year.
While acknowledging that the text called for a sped-up phase-out of coal and fossil fuel subsidies, she said "wreckers like the Saudi and Australian governments will be working to gut that part before this conference closes".
"Ministers now have three days to turn this around and get the job done here in Glasgow instead of once again kicking the climate can down the road."
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said in a statement that Australia was "an active and constructive participant in the negotiations to ensure a positive outcome" from the summit.
"Australia was proud to communicate an enhanced NDC [nationally determined contributions] prior to COP26 which highlighted our strong record of achievement," he said.
He says Australia is projected to reduce emissions by at least 35 per cent by 2030, although it's not a formal pledge.
Ed Milliband, a spokesman for the UK opposition Labour party, said the last 24 hours had been "a devastating reality check on what has actually been delivered at this summit".
"We are miles from where we need to be to halve global emissions this decade," he said.
"Today, Boris Johnson needs to stop the spin and confront the reality.
"Given this summit will not deliver anything like what we needed, now he has to turn to plotting a path out of Glasgow that can keep 1.5[C] alive."
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