The Abbott government does not get enough credit for its emissions reduction policies, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said, as he revealed Australia will not announce post-2020 climate targets until August.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Abbott told a media conference on Monday that targets Australia will take to a global climate summit in Paris at the end of the year will not be made public until after a cabinet meeting at the beginning of August.
But he said the difference between Australia and the rest of the world was that "when we make commitments to reduce emissions we keep them".
"Other countries make all these airy-fairy promises that never come to anything," Mr Abbott said.
Australia is the only developed country that has given no indication of what level of emissions reductions it is prepared to take on.
The government has previously said it would reveal Australia's targets in July, and an announcement was widely expected this week to coincide with the Major Economies Forum in the United States.
Mr Abbott was asked about Australia's likely target after New Zealand revealed its target of 30 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 – a figure condemned by climate experts as not ambitious enough to avoid the globally agreed 2 degrees of warming.
"I'm not going to speculate in advance of a decision by the cabinet and the party room," he said.
"We flagged that we would finalise our position about the middle of the year and we've got a party room meeting coming up at the beginning of August.
"I'm not going to flag any final position in advance of due process and proper consideration."
But he gave an assurance the figure reached by the government would be a "strong" one.
"We'll take a very strong and credible position to Paris," Mr Abbott said.
"This government doesn't get enough credit, Australia doesn't get enough credit, for the emissions reduction work that we have already done.
"We don't get enough credit for the environmental protection that has already been achieved and, while I'm on the subject, let me again congratulate [Environment Minister] Greg Hunt for his work in getting the Great Barrier Reef taken off the World Heritage Commission endangered list."
Australia's emissions are the highest per capita of any country in the developed world.
Erwin Jackson, deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute, said Australia and Japan were the last two developed economies to formally announce post 2020 targets, although Japan has given some indication of what its target will be.
"But the core issue is the target will need to be strong and it will need to be credible if it's to be a foundation for stable and effective climate policy in Australia," Mr Jackson said.
The independent Climate Change Authority has urged Australia to adopt an emissions reduction target of 30 per cent on 2000 levels by 2025, equating to a 36 per cent reduction on 2005 levels.
When compared with other developed nations, the recommendations would put Australia ahead of the US, which has a 26 to 28 per cent target by 2025 and well in front of Canada's 30 per cent target on 2005 levels by 2030.
They would place Australia roughly on par with Germany and Switzerland, but behind Britain.
Australia's current target is to reduce emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020, which is roughly equivalent to a target of 13 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020.
The Climate Council said only Canada, which withdrew from the Kyoto Agreement, was not on track to meet its current emission reduction promises.
Mr Hunt, who has previously said the government would reveal its new targets in July, said on Monday the announcement would be "in the coming weeks". He suggested Australia's target might surprise people and that it would be bigger than some expected.
"We are actually ahead of where I had hoped to be. We are in a remarkably strong position," Mr Hunt said.
"We will have a strong and I think more ambitious target than others would have previously expected. So I couldn't be more pleased and more delighted."
Australia became the first country in the world last year to axe a price on carbon when the government repealed Labor's carbon tax and replaced it with Direct Action, a policy to pay polluters to reduce their emissions.
The first auctions under the Emissions Reduction Fund took place in April, with the government pledging $660 million out of a possible $2.5 billion for 144 projects.
It is unclear when the second round of auctions under the scheme will occur.
Opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler said Mr Abbott's climate targets would "only be as low as the hard-right conservatives in his party will let them be, while the Foreign Minister and Communications Minister know the global momentum is going against Tony Abbott's inaction".
