LABOR COMMITS TO NET ZERO POLLUTION BY 2050

Media Release

THE HON BILL SHORTEN

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

MEMBER FOR MARIBYRNONG

THE HON MARK BUTLER MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT

 CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER

MEMBER FOR PORT ADELAIDE

Date: 27 November 2015

Ahead of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, Labor has set a long term goal of net zero pollution by 2050.
This will ensure Australia is in line with the global, bipartisan goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius on pre-industrial levels.

If we do not act, Australia will continue to experience an increase in extreme weather events, more severe droughts and rising sea levels.

All of which will come at an incredibly high cost to our economy, our environment and our way of life.

Labor accepts the science that limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius is necessary to avert dangerous climate change.

That commitment requires Australia to be a net zero pollution economy by the middle of the century.

Transitioning Australia to a net zero emissions economy by 2050 requires a decarbonisation pathway.

Under Labor, this pathway will have a number of milestone targets to ensure that Australia is on-track.
Experts, the environment sector and vulnerable nations strongly advocate for five year pledge and review arrangements and the UK, US, China and France have also proposed this.
A Shorten Labor Government will implement a five yearly pledge and review mechanism to assess progress and to adjust commitments over time.

To achieve the target of net zero pollution by 2050, Labor will consult on the Climate Change Authority’s 2030 baseline target of a 45 per cent reduction in carbon pollution on 2005 levels.

And within a year of coming to Government we will also put in place a 2025 target.

Labor will use the Climate Change Authority’s recommendation of a 45 per cent reduction as the basis for our consultations with industry, employers, unions and the community.

We will undertake this process mindful of the consequences for jobs, for regions and for any impacts on households.

Labor’s Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Mark Butler will lead this process and will report to Shadow Cabinet by the end of March next year.

Australians expect their leaders to take climate change seriously, and rely on the best science when developing their policies.

Australians know that the longer we delay action on climate change, the more severe the cost.

Malcolm Turnbull may be leader of the Liberal Party but his policies are Tony Abbott’s.

Australia goes to the Paris Climate Change conference as the only nation that has gone backwards on climate action in the past two years - with a policy that cannot and will not work.

Under the Liberals’ policy, it is taxpayers, not polluters, who pay to reduce emissions at a significant cost to the budget.

Australia deserves a stronger policy and a real plan.

For more details on Labor’s plan visit: www.alp.org.au/climatechangeactionplan