Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. We're facing a climate emergency, but, under your government, Australia's greenhouse pollution is going up year after year. You're the minister for emissions reduction; the KPI is in the job title. Minister, in what year will emissions reduce as required by the science? If emissions don't reduce in line with the science, will you resign as minister for emissions reduction?

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

I thank the member for his question. The Australian people, a short time ago, voted for a sensible and achievable approach to emissions reduction, one that will keep power prices down, keep the lights on and keep the economy strong. We are not going to trade off emissions policy and trash the economy, and we don't need to. The reason is simple: we have a proud track record of emissions reduction in this country. We beat our 2012 targets for Kyoto, we'll beat our 2020 targets by 367 million tonnes and we'll beat our Paris 2030 targets.

We knew, as of December last year, that we needed to find 328 million tonnes of abatement to reach our 2030 target. The Prime Minister laid out, several months before the election, down to the last tonne, how we will reduce those emissions. The centrepiece in that is the $3.5 billion Climate Solutions Package. That will ensure that we reach our targets.

It is true that in recent years we have seen extraordinary growth of the gas industry in Australia and, as a result of that, we are seeing this year 150 million tonnes of emission reduction as a result of clean gas exports from Australia. So not only are we ensuring that we will reach our emissions reduction targets, we are ensuring the world will reach its emissions reduction targets too.