Extract from ABC News
Pacific Island leaders at the Glasgow climate conference have pressed Scott Morrison to make sharper cuts to Australia's emissions this decade as they grapple with the impacts of global warming.
Key points:
- Australia's funding for neighbouring nations will increase to $2 billion over the next five years
- Scott Morrison told the conference technology would be crucial to achieving net zero emissions
- The federal Opposition accused Mr Morrison of embarrassing Australia on the world stage
The Prime Minister used his speech to reaffirm the federal government's commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 and to again stress that technological developments will be key to driving down pollution.
He also announced that the government would boost Australia's climate finance commitment, to help Pacific and South-East Asian neighbours with the effects of climate change, by $500 million to a total of $2 billion.
But in a pointed post on social media, Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama called Mr Morrison's net zero commitment "a start."
Mr Bainimarama said he used his meeting with Mr Morrison in Glasgow to press him to slash Australia's emissions by 2030.
"I've now urged Scott Morrison to show us a concrete plan to halve emissions by 2030," he said on Twitter.
Mr Morrison used his speech at Glasgow to point to Australia's uptake of solar and other renewable energy technologies.
But he also said that the Glasgow climate change conference — which has been billed as one of the most important in a generation — could only achieve so much.
The Prime Minister argued the challenge of achieving any progress on cutting carbon emissions would be "met by those who are frankly largely not in this room".
"It will be our scientists, our technologists, our engineers, our entrepreneurs, our industrialists and our financiers that will actually chart the path to net zero — and it is up to us as leaders of governments to back them in," Mr Morrison said.
"Technology will have the answers to a decarbonised economy, particularly over time."
While Australia has adopted the net zero by 2050 pledge, it has not increased its short-term 2030 targets.
Tony Abbott set that benchmark in 2015, with a commitment to cut emissions by 26 to 28 per cent.
Mr Morrison said during his speech that Australia would "meet and beat" that promise — even though Australia had made no formal commitment to do so.
"By 2030 our nationally determined contribution here at COP26 notes that our emissions in Australia will fall by 35 per cent by 2030, far exceeding our Paris commitment," he said
When reporters asked him if Pacific leaders had asked Australia to make sharper cuts by 2030, Mr Morrison confirmed they had.
"Well, they always have. In every discussion I've ever had with Pacific Island leaders, that is something they've always encouraged us to do," he said.
But he argued that the net zero commitment Australia has made would still be enough to meet the expectations and "passion" embodied in the Kainaki Declaration on climate change, which was delivered at the 2019 Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in Tuvalu.
The federal Opposition accused Mr Morrison of embarrassing Australia on the world stage.
"It's just a continuation of the steaming pile of nothingness that we had in Australia before he left," Shadow Energy Minister Chris Bowen said.
"It is a speech devoid of substance, it's more slogans, more spin.
"Just talking about technology and saying technology over and over is not a framework for the development and adaption, or the adoption, of that technology."
Boost to 'climate resilience' funding
Mr Morrison's climate finance promise will see Australia increase its funding for "climate resilience" projects over the next five years, with money going towards infrastructure projects such as roads, schools and bridges.
The extra $500 million comes on top of the $1.5 billion commitment that was announced in December 2020.
Mr Bowen said: "While any support for South-East Asian and Pacific nations is welcome, it comes off the back of the government removing Australia from the global climate change fund, and also billions of dollars of cuts to foreign aid over six successive budgets … which have impacted our region very severely.
"Scott Morrison wants a pat on the back for this announcement — he won't be getting one from us, and I doubt it he'll be getting one from Pacific nations."
Pacific leaders have not just been ramping up pressure on Australia — Mr Bainimarama also criticised countries such as China and Russia for unveiling a 2060 net zero goal without giving specific plans to cut down emissions this decade.
"We have fallen so far off-course that only bold and courageous action will suffice," he said.
"2060 is too late, empty promises of mid-century ambition are not enough.
He argued the future of some nations was at stake.
"We Pacific nations have not travelled to the other end of the world to watch our future to be sacrificed at the altar of appeasement of the world's worst emitters," Mr Bainimarama said.
"The existence of our low-lying neighbours is not on the negotiating table.
"Humanity does not lack the resources, technology, projects, innovative potential to achieve it — all that is missing, ladies and gentlemen, is the courage to act."
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