Anthony Albanese has slammed Peter Dutton as “worse than Scott Morrison on climate change” after the Coalition signalled it will not support the Labor government’s 2030 net zero emissions target.
The opposition leader has confirmed he will scrap Labor’s legislated target for 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 if elected and focus on nuclear energy to reach net zero by 2050.
The decision would place Australia at odds with its legally binding targets under the 2015 Paris Agreement, where nearly 200 countries committed to their own plans to reduce planet-warming emissions.
Speaking in Canberra on Monday morning, the Prime Minister said that when Labor legislated Australia’s 2030 target, creating certainty for business, certainty for investment, certainty for jobs was the goal.
“Peter Dutton is walking away from climate action,” Mr Albanese said.
“His decision to abandon the 2030 target means him walking away from the Paris Accords. If you walk away from the Paris Accords, you’ll be standing with Libya, Yemen, and Iran, and against all of our major trading partners and all of our important allies.”
Under the Paris Agreement countries, excluding Iran, Libya and Yemen, have vowed to limit the rise in the earth’s average global temperatures “well below” 2 degrees and make an effort to stay at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Peter Dutton has never believed in taking action on climate change and the Coalition have been a mess,” Mr Albanese said.
“For 10 years, they had 22 policies and didn’t land one. We’ve had one policy, we landed it. You can’t shape the future if you’re afraid of it, and Peter Dutton is afraid of the future, and he’s incapable of leading Australia towards the future that we need.
“Peter Dutton is worse than Scott Morrison on climate change. He is all negativity and no plan. And what we’ve seen now for two years under Peter Dutton is a reluctance to announce any policies.”
But the Liberal Party has insisted it is not leaving the Paris climate change agreement and remains committed to the Coalition’s pledge of net zero by 2050.
“If we do that we will grow the economy — not shrink it like Labor is doing,” Mr Dutton said.
“There will be a big difference between the Prime Minister and I at the next election. Mr Albanese and [Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris] Bowen will be promising higher electricity prices, blackouts and an energy policy that will drive manufacturing and jobs offshore.
“As Prime Minister I will work day and night to bring power prices down and to make electricity reliable and cleaner. Labor is slowly wrecking the economy.”
Scientists have warned that if global temperatures were to exceed current levels, dangers from severe floods, wildfires, drought and heatwaves could become unmanageable.
Mr Albanese insisted that Australia was “on track”.
“We will produce information every single year. And new policies will be added,” he said.
“We’ve had record numbers of solar panels put on roofs in the last couple of years. We have businesses coming to see me, through that door, businesses like Rio Tinto and others that are transforming the way that they engage in advanced manufacturing.
“So, I’m very confident not only that we can get there but, importantly, that we must get there. This isn’t some academic exercise over whether, you know, Souths win their third game in a row next Friday night — which is important — but this is about our environment, this is about our lifestyle, this is about natural disasters.
“And for a country like Australia, that is so susceptible to cyclones, to flooding, to bushfires, there are economic consequences behind not moving forward as part of a global community. And if Australia steps back from that as well, there’s also consequences for our relationship.”