Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

No, the government doesn't concede that. The government believes that we have demonstrated in a range of ways over the years capacity for the Australian economy to meet emissions reduction targets, and that will happen once again. As I outlined before, our emissions per capita and per GDP are at their lowest levels in 27 years. We are on track to beat our 2020 target by some 224 million tonnes. The Emissions Reduction Fund, which the government has operated, has secured 189 million tonnes of abatement at just $11.83 per tonne.

We have taken other action in terms of legislating to phase out HFCs which will save millions of tonnes of emissions. We are consulting on vehicle emissions standards and, as I indicated before, we have a comprehensive process in place, sparked with the release of a discussion paper in March of this year, that will inform the remainder of the policies over the period to 2030 to ensure that all relevant parts of the Australian economy contribute to Australia once again meeting and probably once again exceeding emissions reduction targets. (Time expired)