Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The point I was making is in relation to the Treasury’s own modelling, which showed that there was very little difference in impact on the gross national product over time. That is what I was referring to and that is what Sir Nicholas Stern’s report showed as well: under all these scenarios there would still be considerable growth in the economy; it would just be marginally lower than otherwise would have been anticipated. That is the point that I am making. The minister still has not explained why she would not have modelled the Bali road map, since that is the road map that was understood and agreed for developed countries.

The minister also says she does not know of any other countries that have named that level of ambition. I can inform the minister that Britain has said that it would go with a 34 per cent target. The Norwegians, I think, have an even higher target than that. I will check that in a minute. Scotland has gone for a 42 per cent target. So there are other countries. The Europeans have said they will do 20 per cent by 2020 and go to 30 per cent in the context of a global agreement. I would be interested in knowing what the Treasury did say about the impact on GNP over time in those different scenarios.