Election 2016 Policy Primer: The Environment

The Conversation - Amanda Dunn | Emil Jeyaratnam | Michael Courts

With last year's Paris Climate Agreement now signed, both major parties now agree on the need for credible cuts to greenhouse emissions.
Where they differ is on how, and by how much, to do it. Labor's proposals are more ambitious, calling for a 45% reduction in emissions by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. This is a far deeper cut than the 26-28% announced by Tony Abbott last year ahead of the Paris talks, which remains the Coalition's policy.
Labor's newly announced plan for phased-in emissions trading schemes for power generators and other heavy industries suggests that Bill Shorten thinks voters can still be convinced on pricing carbon (with a firm focus on the biggest emitters), despite the vitriol that was poured on Julia Gillard’s carbon tax during the 2013 campaign.
The Coalition remains committed to its $A2.55 billion Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), which offers public funding to carbon-reduction projects, despite persistent concerns that the scheme is still not ambitious enough to get the job done.
Carbon pricing remains anathema to the Coalition, as shown by Treasurer Scott Morrison's hailing of the carbon tax repeal in a Budget 2016 speech that otherwise steered well clear of climate issues. Yet the ERF could be easily tweaked to become a carbon market, suggesting that the biggest hurdle would be political rather than practical.
Labor is also looking to outflank the Coalition on renewable energy, opting for a target of 50% by 2030 (the Greens have called for 90%). Last year the Abbott government cut the official Renewable Energy Target.
The climate debate has been galvanised by the severe bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
Last year, Environment Minister Greg Hunt successfully avoided the ignominy of the reef being added to the list of World Heritage in Danger. But the government has also approved the world's biggest coal mine in the nearby Galilee Basin, prompting accusations of a lack of joined-up thinking on these two issues.
We don't yet know the full fallout from the CSIRO's planned cuts to climate science, which attracted widespread condemnation.
There is one huge environmental issue of which we’re likely to hear very little during the campaign. Leaving the Great Barrier Reef aside, neither major party has a significant policy on wildlife conservation. This election is set to be less about nature and more about nurturing the economy.