Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer has split with her party and its leader Peter Dutton over the Coalition’s plan to scrap Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction target.
On Saturday, Mr Dutton revealed the Coalition would abandon the Albanese government’s legally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, arguing Australia would fail to meet the target that is largely reliant on the decarbonisation of the national energy grid.
Amid uncertainty over the Coalition’s position, Mr Dutton clarified on Tuesday that the opposition remained committed to a 2030 target that it would set following the next federal election if it formed government.
“We’ll look at the prevailing economic conditions after the next election and we’ll make announcements in due course,” Mr Dutton said.
But on Wednesday, Ms Archer, an outspoken Liberal moderate from Tasmania who has previously agitated for stronger action on climate change, said the Coalition should be clear with voters about what its climate targets were prior to the next federal poll.
“The current targets are already legislated. They are the targets,” she told the ABC.
“If we were planning to change that I think it would be reasonable to put it to the Australian people at an election.
“Of course, I also think it would be a regressive step.”
Ms Archer is not the first Coalition backbencher to break ranks with the Opposition Leader. Earlier this week, renegade Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan said the Coalition should ditch the Paris Agreement entirely and abandon its commitment to reach net zero by 2050.
Labor’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target is a commitment under the 2015 Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty with an overarching goal to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels”.
Official projections released in November by the Climate Change Authority showed Labor was within striking distance of achieving its interim target, with Australia forecast to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent by the end of the decade.
Alongside the other 195 signatories to the Paris Agreement, Australia cannot renege or weaken its previous emission reduction commitments, meaning a move by the Coalition to dump or reduce the 2030 target would constitute a breach of the agreement.
Speaking in Sydney on Wednesday, Anthony Albanese reiterated his criticism of Mr Dutton, claiming the Opposition Leader was more opposed to action on climate change than his predecessor, Scott Morrison.
“This is an extraordinary failure of leadership from Peter Dutton. It shows he’s not up to the job of being the alternative prime minister of this country,” the Prime Minister said.
Mr Albanese added that further revisions to Australia’s near-term climate targets would undermine much-needed investment to decarbonise the Australian economy.
“We need to seize the opportunities which are there for new jobs created with new investment, particularly in our regions,” he said.
“Peter Dutton wants to scare that investment away and wants Australia to fail.”