Pressured By COP, Election, Australia Net-Zero Blahblah 2050 Target Blah Aspirations Blahblahblah
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As one of the world’s top per-capita emitters and fossil fuel exporters, Australia has come under increasing pressure to commit to carbon neutrality by 2050. Some 130 countries have already agreed to the target, leaving Australia isolated in the developed world. And the recent United Nations climate change report painted a bleak picture for an island nation already facing increasing droughts, bush fires and other extreme weather events. This week, Morrison, who has said net-zero emissions by 2050 is his “ambition,” passed up a chance to commit to that target during a trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
But there are growing signs he will make the plunge before the Glasgow Climate Change Conference, known as or COP26, in five weeks. Perhaps the clearest indication came on Friday, when Morrison’s right-hand man, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, warned that Australia faced stiff financial consequences if the country was perceived as “not transitioning in line with the rest of the world.”
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Climate experts, meanwhile, warn that net zero by 2050 is not nearly enough. “That’s much too little, much too late as far as the science is concerned for meeting the Paris climate goals,” Will Steffen of Australian National University said. “There are a whole host of arguments to say net zero by 2050 is not sufficient,” he said, “But even just putting forward that target would open up a discourse that really needs to be had in Australia.”
He contrasted Morrison’s reluctance to move on climate change to the prime minister’s recent commitment to a controversial and costly nuclear submarine deal with the United States and Britain. “With fires, with bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, with extreme heat, with sea level rise, with much of our population and infrastructure on the coast, we’re right in the firing line,” he said.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/australia-climate-net-zero-morrison/2021/09/24/47d2f918-1c1f-11ec-bea8-308ea134594f_story.html