Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, representing the Prime Minister. A new raft of temperature records were broken over this weekend, with an intense and prolonged heatwave in spring. The Bureau of Meteorology has previously advised that your 2030 targets have Australia on track for upwards of four degrees of warming. So, even if you meet and beat your targets, Australia will experience heatwaves growing in frequency and intensity every single year, destroying crops, killing more coral, shutting down workplaces and claiming lives. Will the government lift its 2030 target in order to meet what the science requires?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Waters for her question. Initially, let me just make the observation, which is always important in terms of considering climate policy, that single weeks, or a single weekend, or a single weather event shouldn't, of course, be conflated immediately as a matter of climate change. That is not dismissing at all the longer-term trends and issues that are reported and forecast by different agencies. In relation to emissions reduction in Australia, I think it is important to remember the relative success Australia has had in reducing our domestic emissions here in Australia, when compared with other countries around the world.

Senator Watt interjecting—

I hear Senator Watt's comments. Australia's emissions are down 16.6 per cent since 2005. Across comparable countries, across OECD nations, they've fallen by around nine per cent. We're running at nearly twice the rate of reduction compared with comparable countries. Indeed, other countries—allies and friends like Canada and New Zealand, who are often cited by the Greens or others on these matters—have barely shifted the dial in relation to their emissions, whilst Australia has seen a reduction of some 16.6 per cent. Australia has delivered, is delivering and will continue to deliver when it comes to emissions reductions. Our country will beat our Kyoto-era targets by some 459 million tonnes, in relation to abatement targets. That is a huge overachievement relative to the commitments we've made. Our ambition is well and truly not only to meet our Paris commitments but to repeat our trajectory of meeting and beating targets, as we did with Kyoto 1 and Kyoto 2.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, a supplementary question?

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Noting your reference to that 16.6 per cent figure, the quarterly emissions report released today shows that, when you take out land use, which no other country uses in their figures, Australia's pollution is still higher than 2005 levels. The government's very proud of its figures today, but a pandemic is not a climate plan. Given gas is the main driver of pollution and risks our precious groundwater and farmland, will you dump your failed gas-led recovery?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Gas plays a very important role in Australia's economy and in other economies in terms of enabling the transition from some fuels, such as coal—which the Greens used to come in here and routinely talk about—to other fuels. Gas, indeed, has been a very important driver in transitioning our economy and enabling stability and reliability in an energy system more reliant on renewable energy, which comes with less reliability and needs to have dispatchable energy that can be scaled up when necessary, and gas plays a key role in that. Gas has also increasingly played a role in relation to our other major trading partners being able to shift their emissions intensity in their economies as well. Gas plays a role in relation to Japan's emissions profile and to Korea's emissions profile. All of these key trading partners see gas as a crucial part of their own transition too.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, a final supplementary question?

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Eight out of every 10 major businesses in Australia have said today that your 2030 target is inadequate and needs to be lifted. These are your people. Will the government attend President-elect Biden's promised climate summit, to be held within a hundred days of his swearing in, and lift Australia's ambition, or will you push those businesses to, instead, invest outside Australia?

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We might wait for invitations before we decide what we're going to attend or not in relation to President-elect Biden. But we do very much welcome the fact that the President-elect has indicated a strong commitment to invest in technology that fuels and powers change in relation to climate change. The President-elect's commitment in relation to technology investment is consistent with our own commitment of a $1.9 billion technology investment package in low-emissions technologies. We see enormous complementarities between what President-elect Biden and our government are seeking to pursue in relation to how you achieve transformation in emissions and how you get improved outcomes in that regard. These are the crucial things that we will work and cooperate with the Biden administration on, and indeed we look forward to that engagement, particularly the complementarity with our largest investment partner and the ability, in pursuing those technologies, to cooperate at a private level as well as a government level. (Time expired)