A new discussion paper from the Page Research Centre was featured in the Australian Financial Review.
“Last weekend, the Nationals announced a new policy in which emissions reductions targets would be tied to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, rather than Australia setting its own targets.
Under this scenario, Australia’s 2035 target, which the government just set as a 62 per cent to 70 per cent reduction in 2005 levels, would be about a 30 per cent to 40 per cent reduction.
The policy change is based on an internal review by the Nationals-aligned Page Research Centre which argues Australia should play its role in reducing global emissions, “but it should do so proportionately”.
The report argues that even though Australia accounts for just 1 per cent of global emissions, it is too far ahead of the rest of the world in that it has reduced emissions by 24 per cent since 2005, compared with the OECD average of 14 per cent.
Under the Nationals’ policy, Labor initiatives to force reductions, such as the safeguard mechanism for heavy industrial emitters and the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard for the transport sector, would be abolished and Tony Abbott’s Emissions Reduction Fund, which is budget money used to pay for emissions reductions, would be re-established.”
