- The Guardian
- Issue #2164
Photo: rawpixel.com
Just days after its final approval to the extension of one of the largest fossil fuel export projects in the world, Woodside’s North West Shelf, the government released its National Climate Risk Assessment Report (see “Govt ignores climate risk assessment”) and its emission reduction target for 2035.
The Albanese Labor government has set a new emission reduction target of 62%-70% by 2035 compared with 2005 – a year when emissions peaked. This follows on from the commitment to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 – a target that Australia is not yet on track to meet.
The Climate Council says to “contribute to keeping heating well below 2ºC above pre-industrial levels, after which climate impacts become especially catastrophic and severe,” we need to achieve a net zero target for 2035.
“At a 2035 climate target within the 62-70% range, Australia’s climate pollution will still be amongst the highest in the world, and almost double the current emissions per person globally. Australia’s emissions target would be higher than nations in Europe and Asia, and far exceeding many low-income nations.”
The figure of 2ºC is widely viewed by climate scientists as inadequate. We have already touched 1.5ºC with catastrophic extreme weather events, irreversible melting of polar ice, oceans rising and warming, shortages of fresh water, loss of human lives and biodiversity.
A target within this 62%-70% range falls short of what’s needed to protect Australians and our way of life, the Climate Council warns. The range is weaker than “What the science says is necessary to contribute to avoiding the worst climate impacts (net zero).”
“The Albanese government must also stop undermining our targets by approving new and expanded fossil fuel facilities. Since 2022, Labor has approved 31 new and expanded coal, oil and gas projects, impacting Australia’s 2035 target,” the Council pointed out.
“Approving new fossil fuel exports is destroying the future. It isn’t just a betrayal of our Pacific neighbours, it is a betrayal of all Australians, putting the profits of foreign-owned fossil fuel corporations ahead of our wellbeing, security and prosperity,” Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute, said.
BACK TO FRONT
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen says that a target of over 70% is “not achievable. That advice is very clear.” He claims Labor have “gone for the maximum level of ambition that’s achievable.”
PM Albanese called Labor’s inadequate target “ambitious but achievable,” praising it for “sending the right investment signal, responding to the science and delivered with a practical plan. It builds on what we know are the lowest cost actions we can deliver over the next decade while leaving room for new technologies to take things up a gear” (emphasis added).
“Vitally, this target range balances what the Commonwealth can achieve with existing policies and technologies, and what the country could achieve with a whole-of-economy and whole-of-society effort.”
The target is not “responding to the science.” The government’s starting point is not the science. It is what it and its advisors claim is “achievable.”
Such defeatist thinking is unscientific and inconsistent with what the science demands if humanity and life as we know it are to survive. It is a reflection of the government’s subservience to the big resources companies.
The starting point should be what emission reductions are required and how quickly. From that target the government should go all out to achieve or over-achieve.
CARBON CAPTURE HOAX
So how does the government expect to achieve its totally inadequate target at the same time as promoting increased production of fossil fuels up to 2070?
There are a number of relatively inadequate albeit worthwhile measures such as funding for more renewable energy generation, new transmission and storage of energy including household batteries and token references to First Nations land managers “to use their knowledge of managing country to sequester more carbon …”
Labor is basing its totally inadequate targets on “new technologies to take things up a gear.”
“But we need to invest in a range of options for future sequestration. New carbon removal technologies will be increasingly important as 2050 approaches, but most need further development before they will be ready to be deployed at scale,” the government says in its so-called net-zero plan.
That is an understatement! Carbon capture and storage (sequestration) is hellishly expensive, unproven on a commercial scale, and points to a 2050 time-frame, when announcing a target for 2035. Only $52 million is allocated to Carbon Capture Technologies program “critical to reaching net zero by 2050.”
The whole plan is a cover for fossil fuel business-as-usual and failure to take the urgent and decisive action required to phase out fossil fuel production and usage.
The plan announced alongside the release of the target allocates less than $9 billion in total while leaving untouched $12 billion or more in fossil fuel subsidies.
The plan also includes $73.8 million in a Support Plantation Establishment Program, “increasing future plantation forest resources available for processing.” At the same time logging of native forests continues to enable the expansion of mining and farming.
VULNERABLE MOST EXPOSED
“The weak target announced today by the Albanese government falls dangerously short of what the science requires and what is possible,” ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said.
“Without greater action, we will face more heatwaves, more floods, a higher cost of living, and deeper inequality.
“The federal government is failing to do enough to protect all communities. The people who will bear the heaviest burden are those on low incomes, regional communities and First Nations peoples. People are suffering now.”
“Instead of protecting people, the government’s approach is protecting the profits of coal, oil and gas corporations while households are left to foot the bill,” Goldie said.
POLICY
ACOSS is calling on the federal government to commit to a plan to:
- Reconsider its target at the international climate negotiations in November (COP30), where all countries will assess whether they are doing enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
- Phase out fossil fuels.
- Urgently increase investment to support people and communities at greatest risk of climate change impacts.
- Accelerate home energy and resilience upgrades for renters, First Nations communities, and low-income homeowners.
- Strengthen the community sector’s capacity in climate and disaster response, recovery and resilience.
Climate Facts
- Australia is the second largest fossil fuel exporter and fifth largest fossil fuel producer in the world.
- Emissions from Australia’s fossil fuel exports are around 1.15 billion tonnes CO2 annually, greater than the emissions of all countries except China, the United States, India, and Russia.
- Australia is expanding fossil fuel exports with around 100 new fossil fuel projects under development.
- Nearly a fifth of Australia’s domestic emissions now come from sending fossil fuels overseas.
- The 45-year extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas export terminal, approved by the Australian government on 12 September 2025 will add around 90 million tonnes of emissions to the atmosphere, equivalent to opening 12 new coal power stations.
- The Australian government gives most of the gas exported from Australia to global oil and gas giants for free.
- 0.03% of Australians work in the oil and gas industry.
The Australia Institute
