Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

A parts-per-million analysis is not a sensible way to approach this in terms of a single country’s target because that is an assessment of the entirety of our atmosphere and the concentration of gases in that atmosphere. Australia accounts for about 1.5 per cent of global emissions. I can give you the number of tonnes we anticipate will not be put into the atmosphere as a result of Australia’s scheme at different levels, against what we would otherwise expect. In other words, if you look at how much pollution we would put into the atmosphere without a scheme and how much we would put into the atmosphere with a scheme, you get a figure of how many millions of tonnes of carbon we will be avoiding. As at 2020, at a five per cent target, you are talking 138 million tonnes or equivalent; at a minus 15 per cent target you are talking 194 million tonnes; and at a 25 per cent target you are talking 249 million tonnes. Those figures are tonnes of carbon pollution that would not go into the world’s atmosphere as a result of the legislation that is before the chamber.