Australia pledges 62-70% emissions cut by 2035 in new climate target

Electricity lines near emission funnels for the Bayswater coal-powered thermal power station located near the central New South Wales town of Muswellbrook. Australia has pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 62-70% from 2005 levels over the next decade. Photo / David Gray, AFP

Australia today pledged to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 62% to 70% from 2005 levels over the next decade, after warnings that homes and livelihoods are under threat.

Under the Paris accord, each country must provide a headline figure to the United Nations for cutting heat-trapping emissions by 2035, and a detailed blueprint for how to achieve this.

“We listen to the science and we act in Australia’s national interest,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said as he unveiled the goal.

Australia’s goals are above those of Canada and New Zealand, but below the United Kingdom which is one of the most ambitious in the world.

Global emissions have been rising but need to almost halve by the end of the decade to limit global warming to safer levels agreed under the Paris deal.

Australia’s previous 2030 commitment was to cut emissions by 43% of 2005 levels.

Countries were meant to submit updated targets earlier this year but only 10 of nearly 200 countries required under the Paris Agreement did so on time, according to a UN database tracking the submissions.

The Climate Change Authority warned the world was on track for 2.9C of warming this century based on previous 2030 commitments.

Australia’s pledge follows the release this week of a national climate risk assessment that found rising temperatures will have “cascading, compounding, concurrent” impacts on life in Australia, home to more than 27 million people.

It warned rising oceans and flooding caused by climate change would threaten the homes and livelihoods of more than a million Australians by 2050.

The country has poured billions into solar power, wind turbines and green manufacturing and pledged to make the nation a renewable energy superpower.

But Australia’s green ambitions are at odds with its deep entanglement with lucrative fossil fuel industries.

It remains one of the world’s biggest coal exporters and continues to heavily subsidise fossil fuel sectors.

It has attempted to burnish its green credentials by bidding to host next year’s UN climate summit alongside Pacific Island neighbours threatened by rising seas.

-Agence France-Presse