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

There are many problems for the Australian Greens, but there are two that I will particularly single out on this occasion. One is that, when it comes to climate change and to energy policy, no measure is ever extreme enough for the Australian Greens. The other problem is that they always fail to look at the facts. The facts are that Australia is on track to meet our 2020 target. Our projected emissions in 2020 have come down with every single update. Our position on the 2030 target has also improved by over 120 million tonnes since the December 2016 projections were released. When the 2020 emissions target was announced in 2008, 1,335 million tonnes of emissions were needed. Now we are on track to overachieve on that 2020 target. That's driven by a range of factors, including the rate of technological change. What the Greens just deny and refuse to accept is the reality that Australia, because of technological change and because of innovation, has been able to continuously meet and exceed our projections targets.

That's what happened in relation to the first Kyoto target. It is happening in relation to the 2020 target, and I expect it is exactly what will happen as well, as the current trend lines are showing, in relation to the 2030 target.