International action on climate change has surged with General Motors announcing it will cease making petrol and diesel cars by 2035 and the United Nations secretary-general calling for wealthy nations to abandon coal and set net-zero emissions targets.
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US President Joe Biden is putting climate change action front and
centre of his administration. Credit: AP
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The measures suggest the administration is determined to follow through on the ambitious climate agenda it laid out during the campaign.
Tennant Reed, the principal national adviser at the Australian Industry Group, the peak industry association, said “it is remarkable how much genuine investments of political capital, organisational effort and of personnel the Biden administration – and the Biden campaign before it – has made on climate”.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says rich nations must play
their part. Credit: AP
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He said GM’s announcement not only to abandon the manufacture of light internal combustion vehicles but to pursue net-zero emissions by 2040 in its own right suggested that American industry is taking notice of the Biden administration’s ambitions.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on wealthy nations to reach key milestones by the time the COP25 climate talks begin in Glasgow in November during an address early on Friday morning, Australian time.
He said nations that were responsible for 65 per cent of global emissions had announced plans to reach net-zero by 2050 and by November he hoped that figure would be 90 per cent.
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‘Either way we win’: Labor’s plan to get the upper hand in
climate wars |
Mr Reed said Australia risked reputational damage if it was seen to be not acting, but he said the government’s funding of new technologies announced last year should not be discounted.
“Ultimately the motivator here should not be about how we are seen; we need to ask … is Australia going to prosper in a world that is successfully acting on climate?
“With such a huge number of customers for thermal coal, metallurgical coal and natural gas, committing to net-zero emissions by 2050 and 2060, we have a lot of adjusting to do.”
A spokesman for Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said Australia is playing its part in the global response to climate change by meeting and beating our international commitments.
“As the PM has said: ‘Australia’s policies, when it comes to reducing emissions, are set here in Australia, in Australia’s national interests’. And our responsibility is to set that in a way that is consistent with the demands and needs and views of the Australian people and the science that supports that. And we have got a great track record.”
Links
- (AU) As Biden Hits The Accelerator On Climate Action, Australia Remains Stuck In Policy Paralysis
- (AU) ‘Breathtaking’: What Joe Biden’s Sweeping Climate Plan Means For Scott Morrison
- (AU) The Verdict On Australia’s Emissions Targets: Catastrophic
- (AU) Politics Of Carbon Has Ended, Scott Morrison Declares
- G.M.’s Bold Move on the Climate
- GM’s move the beginning of the end for petrol cars
- Biden, Emphasizing Job Creation, Signs Sweeping Climate Actions
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- The verdict on Australia’s emissions targets: catastrophic
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