Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

The investment in renewable energy is double that of the next countries in the world. In fact, it's more than France, Germany and the UK combined on a per capita basis. And that's why our emissions in electricity are coming down at a rapid rate—2.1 per cent last year—and it's also why we will reach our Paris obligations, just as we reached our Kyoto obligations. In fact, not only did we reach our earlier Kyoto obligation, our 2020 obligation, as of December last year, but we are on track to beat it by 367 million tonnes. It's important to note that this is a 1.1 billion tonne turnaround on what we inherited from those opposite—from deficit to surplus. That's what we do: clean up Labor's mess.

As we look forward to the 2030 target, central to reaching that target is the Climate Solutions Package, a $3.5 billion package.

Opposition members interjecting—

This is consideration in detail of budget initiatives. That package includes crucial initiatives to get our emissions down, including the Climate Solutions Fund, which will deliver 102 million tonnes of abatement; energy efficiency initiatives, which will deliver 63 million tonnes of abatement; and hydro projects—Snowy 2.0 and the Battery of the Nation project—which will deliver 25 million tonnes of abatement. In combination, the initiatives in the Climate Solutions Package have us on target to reach our Paris obligations, as we will reach them in electricity, well ahead of time. In fact, I'd like to point out and confirm to the Chamber that we expect to reach our Paris targets in 2021, nine years ahead of schedule.

With that, our challenge is in the reliability of our grid, which is why we're underwriting new generation, we're putting in place the retailer reliability obligation and we're working closely with collaborative states to get more gas into the market at an affordable price. We are absolutely committed to reaching our international obligations while ensuring that Australians get a fair deal on affordable, reliable energy.

Proposed expenditure agreed to.

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