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This thread seeks to correct some very serious mistakes on the issue of 2030 climate targets embedded in @David_Speers @abcnews ‘analysis’ piece which appear to reflect government talking points rather than what is meant to be happening this year 1/8 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-07/government-climate-policy-fight-press-club-wasnt-a-peep/13126136
The first thing to know is that the International climate process this year heading to COP 26 in Glasgow is focused on increasing ambition for 2030. The Biden Administration is working flat out to get ambitious 2030 target ready well ahead of his climate summit on 22 April 2/8
The USA wants to have an ambitious 2030 target ready for April to demonstrate its commitment and to set marker for others. Australia simply adopting a net zero target will not be sufficient - it will need to have a major improvement on its 2030 goal. The pressure will be on. 3/8
Setting a goal for 2035 as referred to by @David_Speers is not on the agenda this year. This is set to happen following the next IPCC report and global stocktake, with 2035 targets to be tabled by 2025. 4/8
What this means is that Australia talking about 2035 rather than 2035 will be rightly seen as an attempt to deflect attention from its inadequate 2030 policies. It will not cut it. 5/8
The @David_Speers piece then completely ignores need for the actual and real government Australia has to increase its 2030 target, and implies there is no real need or capacity to do so (it is claimed breakthroughs are needed first), nor that there will be pressure to do so 6/8
And then the weirdest most illogical argument is made that “All agree there's no need for Labor to rush an interim climate target, given the shift underway in the United States, globally and within the Morrison Government.” As is well know all do not agree 7/8
As everyone knows the massive shift globally, in particular the USA, China and the EU places pressure on all parties to increase their 2030 ambition, including the ALP, but most importantly the present Australian government. 8/8
