Federal Budget 2019: Environment Restoration Fund Secures $100 Million To Cut Waste, Protect Threatened Species

Fairfax - Nicole Hasham

Communities will be encouraged to act locally to halt plant and animal extinction, protect coastlines and recycle waste through a $100 million fund announced by the Morrison government on Tuesday.
The Coalition is seeking to boost its environmental record ahead of the May election where climate change is expected to be a headline issue.
The budget confirmed a $3.5 billion climate solutions package announced earlier this year which the government says will help Australia meet its Paris target.
However, there were no major new measures addressing climate change in the budget.

A coalition government would establish a $25 million national centre for coasts, environment, climate research and education at Point Nepean. Credit: Ken Irwin

The $100 million Environment Restoration Fund will grant money to community groups for large projects such as managing erosion around waterways and protecting threatened species habitat. It would also support practical action on waste recovery and recycling.
Australia has one of the world's worst extinction records and critics say a lack of funding for threatened species programs is contributing to the crisis. Erosion is caused by extreme weather and other climate change effects, as well as land clearing.
In NSW, a re-elected Coalition government would spend $21.4 million improving infrastructure at defence heritage sites on Sydney Harbour, opening them for community, educational and recreational use.
In Victoria, the government would establish a $25 million national centre for coasts, environment, climate research and education. Located at Point Nepean, it would research marine and coastal ecosystems, climate and environmental management.
A $25 million Harry Butler Environmental Education Centre would be established through Western Australia's Murdoch University, to develop "sustainable environment outcomes from economic development".
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said all Australians have a responsibility to "protect our environment and address climate change ... Australians have been gifted a precious inheritance".
He emphasised the climate solutions package, which includes $2 billion for emissions reduction activities plus funding for a national electric vehicle strategy and energy efficiency strategies.
"Through our measures, as we have done in the past, we will beat our international emission reduction targets," Mr Frydenberg said. Several authoritative international bodies have previously disputed this claim.
The government announced most environment and energy measures ahead of the budget, such as $1.38 billion for the Snowy Hydro expansion.

Links

• Federal budget 2019: $3.9b fund to deal with the fallout from climate change
• NRMA dismisses claim Labor's electric vehicle target will leave tradies stranded
• Budget blind to dual crises of inequality and climate change
• Australia government proposes new fund to meet emission reduction targets

March Was Australia's Hottest On Record, With Temperatures 2c Above Average

The Guardian - Michael McGowan

Hot weather came after sweltering summer and unusually dry season in Western Australia and the Northern Territory

Temperatures across Australia were 2.13C above the average throughout March, according to Bureau of Meteorology data. Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

An abnormally hot summer in Australia ended with the warmest March on record, new data from the Bureau of Meteorology shows.
The latest monthly climate breakdown shows that despite two severe tropical cyclones in the northern states, temperatures across Australia were 2.13C above the average throughout last month in part due to an unusually dry summer in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
“One of the standout features of March was there was above-average temperatures just about everywhere; more than 99% of the country,” Blair Trewin, a senior climatologist at the bureau told Guardian Australia.
“Really a few things came together: the overall, long-term background trend [of rising temperatures] means you’re starting from a higher base, which increases the probability of records.
“Another major factor has been that the summer monsoon season in the tropics has been quite weak. Normally in the tropics in the summer you see fairly regular incursions of rainfall and moisture into the continent. That has been happening in Queensland but not really in Western Australia or the Northern Territory.”

The record temperatures in March follow records in January, while February was in the top five on record. Last year was Australia’s third-warmest year on record. It beat out the previous third-place holder, 2017.
The 2018 state of the climate report from the bureau and CSIRO found Australia was experiencing more extreme heat, longer fire seasons, rising oceans and more marine heatwaves consistent with a changing climate.
So, is this the new normal?
“It’s not as if we’re going to see records every month, even in the warmer overall climate we have now,” Trewin said.
“This is still a very abnormal summer, when you break the record for the warmest first quarter by 0.9 of a degree, that’s not a small number. It’s been an unusually hot few months, the background warming trend we see in Australia is in the order of 0.1 to 0.2 of a degree per decade.
“Even in the climate of 2019 this is unusual, but is not as unusual as it would have been in say 1980 or 1950.”
According to the bureau’s report, two severe tropical cyclones – Trevor and Veronica - contributed to very much above-average rainfall in parts of north Queensland, the east of the Northern Territory, north-east South Australia and parts of the Pilbara coast.
A wet end to the month brought totals to above average for eastern New South Wales, far-eastern Victoria and south-east Queensland.
However the report noted that “unfortunately, the rain needed to reduce significant rainfall deficiencies in drought-affected areas is substantial and will require above-average rainfall over a prolonged period to completely remove deficits at longer timescales”.
Trewin said that without those downpours, the overall average would have been higher.
“It had a bit of a cooling effect particularly in Queensland, though they still came in with their fifth warmest March on record,” he said.
The outlook is not particularly promising either. Trewin said most areas had a “neutral” outlook for rainfall, with the expectation of above-average temperatures to continue.

Links

• Australia's extreme heat is sign of things to come, scientists warn
• 'Falling out of trees': dozens of dead possums blamed on extreme heat stress
• Australia breaks weather records with hottest ever summer
• Australia heatwave: temperatures to soar in every state and territory
• Heatwave sweeps across Australia with temperatures 10C above average
• Australia heatwave to break Christmas weather records with temperatures up to 47C forecast
• Weather warnings as parts of Australia bake in record autumn temperatures
• Australia's east and south faces bad bushfire season after warm, dry winter
• Australian weather: extreme heat sends bushfires raging across south-east
• Eastern Australia swelters under heatwave as hottest January on record looms

Four Corners Report Shows Climate Change Concerns Heating Up Ahead Of Federal Election

Energy Matters

Pre-election climate and energy battles are reaching a critical stage ahead of May’s federal poll.
This week’s ABC Four Corners documentary showed experts weighing in over the best way to tackle climate change and spiralling energy prices.
The point was made that Australia is well-positioned to take advantage of renewable energy.
However, Franck Woitiez, managing director of renewable energy company Neoen, highlighted the uncertainty caused by the lack of a national policy on renewable energy promotion.

Energy battles over rising carbon emissions
Global temperatures may reach three times more than pre-industrial levels the documentary reported.

Damaging greenhouse gases will transform the Australian continent if  we can’t peg our damaging greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result, climate change will transform the Australian continent. That’s the verdict of leading scientist and policy analyst Dr Bill Hare. He says summers will be a time to fear, particularly around the southern coastline.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists Australia will meet its Paris obligations “at a canter”. This means reducing emissions by 26 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.
Yet Shadow Climate Change Minister Mark Butler says carbon emissions have risen steadily since the Coalition came to office. Government figures from December 2018 show Australia’s emissions in 2030 will be only 7 per cent below 2005 levels. The political energy battles look ready to continue past the next election and into the 2020s.

Electric car and energy battleground set for May election
Most of Australia’s emissions come from four areas – transport, industry, agriculture and electricity. Transport makes up close to 20 per cent with nearly half of this coming from cars.
Despite this, Stephen Lester of Nissan Australia says the company has delayed rolling out the latest and much-anticipated new LEAF EV because of poor demand.
Lack of government direction and support means Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world in the EV transition.
Behyad Jafari of the Electric Vehicle Council told the program Australia has only 7,000 EVs on the roads. There are also fewer than 800 EV charging stations across the country.
In February the Coalition released a general EV policy which pushed policy detail back to 2020. This week, Labor Leader Bill Shorten also proposed tax breaks to ensure 50 per cent of Australia’s cars will be electric by 2030.

Managing new wave of renewable energy 
Professor Frank Jotzo of the Australian National University told Four Corners the cost of  renewables like wind and solar panels has consistently fallen.
As a result, home solar battery systems can also be used to charge electric cars and support the growing EV industry.
However, wind and solar farms are not always close to existing transmission lines. Because of this, Australia needs new transmission infrastructure, according to Jotzo, although few agree on where this should go and who pays for it.
Paul Italiano, CEO of Transgrid, says the shift to renewables has happened very quickly. The demand to hook new clean energy sources to the grid is therefore exceeding grid capacity.
Both major parties should commit to upgrading the grid, he says. This will help manage growing renewable supply.

Links

• Four Corners: Climate of Change
• Solar power systems – clean, cheap electricity
• Solar + home battery energy storage
• Federal Election: Bill Shorten says 50% of cars sold in Australia will be electric by 2030 under Labor
• Renewable energy – media and research resources

Labor's Emissions Trading Scheme

AFR - Phillip Coorey

Industry's 250 heaviest polluters will face possible penalties for breaching new emissions caps, and 50 per cent of all new cars sold by the end of next decade should be electric, under long-awaited details of Labor's ambitious climate change policy.
All carbon-intensive sectors of the economy will contribute to achieving Labor's goal of cutting emissions by 45 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, well above the Coalition's target of 26 per cent to 28 per cent.

Under Labor's policy, energy will be exempt from the new emissions cap, known as a baseline and credit scheme.

Bloomberg

Key Statistics 50% The share of new cars sales in 2030 that Labor wants to be electric. 105g Limit on carbon per kilometre for cars under Labor's new emissions standards. 250 The number of big polluters to be caught by Labor's emissions cap, 100 more than now. 25,000 The tonnes of carbon polluters can emit before being subject to a cap.

The policy has been unveiled the day before Tuesday's federal budget and less than a week before Scott Morrison calls the election, ensuring climate change becomes a key feature of the forthcoming campaign.
The Coalition's claims Labor's target will wreck the economy and that it is trying to hide the policy behind the budget.
Labor has refuted this, claiming the Coalition is neglecting climate change and the policy will overshadow the budget.

Energy, farmers exempt from caps
Under Labor's policy, energy will be exempt from the new emissions cap, known as a baseline and credit scheme, in which a penalty is paid if pollution exceeds a certain cap, or baseline.
Labor announced a separate climate policy for the energy sector last year that inoculated it against claims it would drive up power prices.
That policy involved subsidising 100,000 household batteries, underwriting clean energy generation, and, if the Coalition changes its mind, embracing the National Energy Guarantee.
Also, agriculture will not be slugged by the baseline and credit scheme. Instead, it will contribute through increased carbon farming; farmers being paid to offset carbon emissions by other sectors through such measures such as growing trees and managing their soil.
There will also be nationwide bans on large-scale land clearing.

Ramping up Coalition safeguards scheme
The baseline and credit scheme involves ratcheting up the Abbott and Turnbull governments' safeguards mechanism for heavy polluters which set a emissions threshold so high at 100,000 tonnes per year that it covered about 140 businesses and no-one was penalised for exceeding it.
Under Labor's scheme, that cap will be phased down to 25,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
The lower threshold will cover about 250 businesses. Labor will consult over the phasing in of the new cap and there will be escape clauses allowing businesses to offset excess emissions.
If, for example, a business comes in under the threshhold, it can carry the credit over to the next year, or it could make money on its achievement by selling the credit to another business, or it could use agricultural offsets.

International permits, no Kyoto carry over
The controversial option will be to allow the heavy polluter to offset its emissions through the purchase of relatively cheap international credits, as Opposition  leader Bill Shorten indicated last week and which is something the Coalition policy does not allow.
But unlike the Coalition, Labor will not contribute to its emissions reduction target by factoring in the carry over from Australia supposedly exceeding its Kyoto target of cutting emissions by 5 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020.
The government claims the Kyoto target will be exceeded and it will use the credits towards its 26-28 per cent targets. Labor says this is "a dodgy accounting trick''.
"This is a particular accounting technique which only the Australian Liberal Party and the Ukraine use,'' Mr Shorten said.
Emissions intense, trade exposed industries such as steel, cement and aluminium will be given preferential treatment via exemptions so as not to damage their international competitiveness.
"Labor's approach isn't about punishing polluters, it's about partnering with industry to find real, practical solutions to cut pollution, in a way that protects and grows industry and jobs,'' the policy document says.

Electric vehicle strategy
The transport sector will contribute by a move towards electric cars and tighter emissions standards on petrol and diesel vehicles.
Labor will set a target for 50 per cent of all new cars sales by 2030 to be electric vehicles. It will set the same 50 per cent target for 2025 for the purchase of the government vehicle fleet in an effort to both set an example and create a secondhand market.
And Labor will introduce emissions standards on petrol cars with the aim of phasing in a limit of 105 grams per kilometre travelled.
This, Labor says, will bring Australia into line with US standards but not up to the stricter European Union standards.
It will also offer businesses incentives to replace their fleets with electric vehicles by including the purchase of such cars in its proposed Australian Investment Guarantee.
This policy allows businesses to immediately deduct 20 per cent off any new eligible asset worth more than $20,000.
A report commissioned by the government last year found electric cars will be as ­affordable as petrol vehicles within seven years and were likely to represent 90 per cent of all cars on Australian roads by 2050.
The report by consultancy Energeia says sales could take off by the early 2020s, with only moderate taxpayer support required to entice uptake before sales boom within a decade.
It forecasts rapid ­advances in technology would eliminate “range anxiety”, with experts predicting charging time and range will match internal combustion engines by 2024.

Not trying to hide behind budget
While any emissions reduction policy is a risk, Labor believes the political climate is such that it will be rewarded for taking action. One source said the aim was to to knock the budget off the front page.
Mr Shorten said Labor stuck with the Coalition's baseline and credit scheme because industry did not want another policy change.
"They don't want to start from scratch with another mechanism,'' the policy document says.
"Industry feedback has been unanimous, businesses want Labor to expand the safeguard mechanism and we've listened.''
Labor will also confirm today that if elected, it will scrap the Coalition's direct action scheme which will spend another $2 billion between 2020 and 2030 effectively buying emissions reductions.

Links

• Labor puts energy subsidies and investment ahead of NEG
• Labor exempts farmers but curbs land clearing
• Expanded pollution caps to hit 100 more big polluters
• Labor sets 50pc target for electric cars
• Labor promises new tax write-offs for business
• 50% of new cars to be electric vehicles by 2030 under Labor climate change policy
• Labor climate change policy proposes tax breaks for businesses to buy electric cars

Al Gore To Head Climate Change Week In Queensland In June

Fairfax - Tony Moore

An Inconvenient Truth presenter and former US vice-president Al Gore will run a three-day climate change training session in Brisbane during Queensland's first Climate Change Week.
Governments from around the Asia-Pacific region will travel to Brisbane for the week starting June 2 for discussion on climate change. World Environment Day is marked on June 5.

Former US vice-president Al Gore will be in Brisbane to present climate-change training sessions in June.
Credit: Bloomberg

Summary Queensland's inaugural Climate Change Week will be held from June 2 to June 8.  Environmentalist Al Gore will run a three-day strategy development session in Brisbane during the week. State and local government from Australia and the Asia Pacific region will be invited to Climate Change Week. Observers believe Queensland is experiencing the first impacts of a warming climate with unusual bushfire and cyclone behaviour as well as a string of coral bleaching episodes in the past five years.

Political, business and community groups will also meet to debate issues to develop a strategy to minimise the effects of a changing climate.
After he left politics, Mr Gore developed an international reputation when his grassroots campaign to educate people about climate change became a 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
He was a joint-winner of a Nobel prize the following year.
An Inconvenient Sequel came in 2017, while Mr Gore runs and lectures at The Climate Reality Project.
In Brisbane, Mr Gore and The Climate Reality will host climate-change training for between 800-1000 business and community leaders.
Professor Don Henry, chair of The Climate Reality in Australia and the Pacific, said this was the first time Mr Gore would train others on climate issues in Queensland.
“It is a good opportunity for people from all walks of life to be better informed and act on the solutions needed to tackle climate change,” Professor Henry said.
“With the Great Barrier Reef threatened by climate change and action needed across the Asia Pacific region, the training will be of global significance.”
The Queensland government is developing a green paper on climate-change strategies, which it planned to release in either June or July, the state's new chief scientist Professor Paul Bertsch told Brisbane Times in February.

Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch announces Queensland's Climate Change Week
will include planning sessions from An Inconvenient Truth speaker Al Gore.
Credit: AAP Image/ Darren England

The Queensland government has set an ambitious target of meeting 50 per cent of its energy needs from renewable energy by 2030 and have zero net emissions by 2050.
“Climate change is the greatest challenge facing our planet today and it is critical that we unite to take urgent action,” Queensland Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said.
Ms Enoch in February said Queensland "was on track" to provide 20 per cent of its electricity needs by renewable energy by 2020, in response to criticism by Queensland Climate Advisory Council senior scientist, Professor Ian Lowe.
The Queensland government is one of 220 members of The Climate Group's Under2 Coalition, a  group of "smaller than national governments" committed to keep the change in the world's temperature to below 2 degrees.
Ms Enoch said the Great Barrier Reef was still threatened by the warming climate.
“During Climate Week Queensland, we will bring together sub-national governments from across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
“In addition, we will host a First Nations Summit to ensure that these communities, many of which are also experiencing the impacts of climate change, are part of these important discussions.”
Climate Week Queensland will include business forums and a public program of arts, music, and panel discussions involving students.
Ms Enoch said that as part of the Minister’s Climate Challenge, students would be invited to identify a local climate problem and brainstorm an idea to solve it.
“The students who put forward the most innovative ideas will have the opportunity to be mentored by and have their solutions judged by world-class business leaders during Climate Week Queensland.”

Links

• World Environment Day 5 June
• Al Gore: The Green Revolution Is 'Unstoppable' - National Geographic
• Al Gore: Averting the climate crisis
• Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis
• An Inconvenient Truth - Wikipedia
• A record share of Australians say humans cause climate change: poll
• 'Great concern': world meteorology agency reports bad climate tidings
• The Climate Reality Project
• The Climate Group

A Record Share Of Australians Say Humans Cause Climate Change: Poll

Fairfax - Matt Wade

More Australians than ever believe human activity is entirely or mainly responsible for climate change, new polling shows.
But only 13 per cent say the Morrison government is doing a good job tackling climate change.

A majority of Australians now think we are seeing more frequent and severe droughts due to climate change.

Credit: Jessica Shapiro

A survey by social research firm Ipsos shows 46 per cent of Australians now agree climate change is “entirely or mainly” caused by human activity. That is the highest share since Ipsos began asking the question in an annual survey of Australians’ attitudes to climate change in 2010.
Another 33 per cent say climate change is “partly caused by human activity and partly caused by natural processes” while 11 per cent said it is “entirely or mainly” caused by natural processes only.
Only 4 per cent say “there is no such thing as climate change” – a share that has remained steady for the past decade.
The survey found a record 65 per cent say climate change is already affecting Australia and is not just a challenge for the future.

An all-time high 52 per cent agreed climate change is causing more frequent and extreme droughts, up from 46 per cent a year earlier.
The proportion that said Australia is already experiencing more frequent and extreme bushfires due to climate change reached 48 per cent, up from 46 per cent a year earlier.
A record proportion also said Australia was grappling with more extreme storms events (48 per cent) and floods (47 per cent) as a result of climate change.
Nearly half of those surveyed (47 per cent) said climate change is causing the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
The share of Australians rating the federal government’s management of climate change as “fairly or very good” has fallen from 18 per cent to just 13 per cent during the past year. The share rating the federal government’s management of climate change as “fairly or very poor” has risen from 41 per cent to 50 per cent in that period.
The survey of a representative sample of 1000 people was conducted in December 2018.
Ipsos researcher Jennifer Brooks said there has been a sharp increase in agreement that both the international community and Australia need to do more to address climate change.
“With most Australians thinking we are already seeing the impacts of climate change there is likely to be only an increasing call for action from government and businesses to mitigate the causes and adapt to the impacts of climate change amongst the public,” she said.
Nearly two in three Australians (64 per cent) think that increasing the amount of power generated from renewable energy sources should be an essential or high priority.

A much bigger share of the population believe the shift towards renewable energy will have a positive impact on the economy (39 per cent) than the share who think the economic impact will be negative (24 per cent).
Close to half of respondents (46 per cent) rated the international community’s performance in tackling climate change as fairly or very poor while only 12 per said it was fairly or very good.
The separate Ipsos Issues Monitor, which asks respondents to rate issues select the three most important issues facing the nation, shows there has been a rapid rise in the community’s anxiety about the state of the environment. The share of respondents nominating the environment as a key challenge has doubled over the past three years.

Links

• David Attenborough And Prince William Take World Leaders To Task On Environment
• David Attenborough Tells Davos: ‘The Garden Of Eden Is No More’
• 467 Ways To Die On A Warming Globe
• Can Humanity Get Out Of Its Latest ‘Progress Trap’?
• Planet At Risk Of Heading Towards “Hothouse Earth” State
• Domino-Effect Of Climate Events Could Push Earth Into A ‘Hothouse’ State
• Earth At Risk Of 'Hothouse Climate' Where Efforts To Reduce Emissions Will Have No Impact, Study Finds
• The Great Climate Silence: We Are On The Edge Of The Abyss But We Ignore It
• Humans Causing Climate To Change 170 Times Faster Than Natural Forces

'Woefully Dirty': Government Accused Over Australia's Failure To Cut Vehicle Emissions

The Guardian - Lisa Cox

Australia has not set efficiency standards, despite years of talking, in contrast to China, India, Japan, US and EU

The shipment of electric cars arrives in Australia in 2010. The government has been criticised for failing to introduce standards for vehicle efficiency and emissions. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images 

Cuts to carbon emissions from vehicle efficiency standards have been left out of government projections for meeting Australia’s Paris climate commitments, indicating the policy has been shelved.
The office of the transport minister, Michael McCormack, said the government had not made a decision on “how or when” standards to cut carbon pollution from vehicles might be implemented.
After almost five years of submissionsa spokesman said the government “is not going to rush into a regulatory solution” with regards to vehicle emissions.
New data shows Australia’s emissions from transport are soaring and projected to be 82% higher in 2030 than they were in 1990.
Australia lags behind the rest of the world in setting vehicle efficiency standards, with most countries in the OECD adopting policies to reduce emissions and improve the efficiency of cars.
The ministerial forum on vehicle emissions was set up under the Turnbull government in 2015, and stakeholders are frustrated at the lack of progress.
Fact sheets produced by the government that set out how it intends to reach Australia’s emissions reduction targets under the Paris agreement suggest any policy on vehicle emissions standards has been abandoned.
In 2015, the government produced a graph indicating it expected to achieve cuts of about 100m tonnes between 2020 and 2030 through vehicle emissions standards.
The government’s latest climate package contains no mention of this, and projects only about 10m tonnes of abatement through an electric vehicle strategy, with no reference to vehicle emissions standards.
The Victorian government asked what progress had been made on vehicle standards at the December meeting of environment ministers, but its questions were dismissed, sources told Guardian Australia.
Environment groups and the automotive lobby have asked for clarity before the election.
The chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O’Shanassy, said it had hoped for more progress towards cleaning up the “woefully dirty” national car fleet.
“But 18 months of radio silence and the removal of proposed standards from pollution abatement estimates out to 2030 strongly suggests the government now has no intention of establishing them.”
In 2017, interest groups consulted as part of the ministerial forum were sent a model proposing a standard of 105g of carbon dioxide per kilometre for Australian light vehicles, phased in from 2020 to 2025.
The proposal would have brought Australia broadly into line with vehicle standards in the US and was forecast to deliver a net economic benefit of $13.9bn. But it faced opposition from the National party and the automotive lobby, and was painted as a carbon tax on cars.
The independent senator Tim Storer, who chaired a Senate inquiry into electric vehicles last year, said the lack of progress was “embarrassing”, given there was “clear evidence of cost benefit” in bringing in the standards.
Labor’s climate policy, due to be announced soon, is expected to point to a target of 105g of carbon dioxide per kilometre. The Greens have proposed vehicle emissions standards “that lead up to a complete ban on new internal combustion vehicles by 2030”.
The chief executive of the Australian Automobile Association, Michael Bradley, said the industry wanted both sides of politics to make their positions clear, but the AAA remained opposed to the 2017 model.
“We’re supportive of an emissions standard but we’re supportive of one that’s reflective of Australians’ vehicle preferences and our market,” Bradley said.
A spokesman for McCormack said the ministerial forum was exploring ways to encourage the uptake of electric and low emissions vehicles.
“The government has not made a decision on how or when noxious emission or fuel efficiency standards may be implemented,” he said.
“It is interested in developing a sensible framework that places savings for motorists and health benefits for the community front and centre while ensuring that the vehicles that Australians enjoy and love remain in the market.”
He added: “The government is not going to rush into a regulatory solution, especially where it has the potential to increase the up-front costs of motor vehicles for Australians”.
Much of the focus on Australia’s carbon emissions has been on the electricity sector. But climate scientists and environment groups have been calling for more attention to carbon pollution from other industries.
Transport accounts for 18% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest source.
Modelling produced by climate scientist Bill Hare for the Australian Conservation Foundation shows emissions from transport are climbing fast and are projected to be 82% higher in 2030 than they were in 1990. Cars represent the largest source of transport emissions and have grown by 25% since 1990.
Nearly 80% of new light duty vehicles sold globally, including in China, Japan, India, UK, the US and the EU, are subject to emission or fuel economy standards, while Australia has failed to implement any policy.
“Australia is almost alone in not having any motor vehicle emissions standards for carbon dioxide and/or vehicle efficiency standards for litres per 100km,” Hare said.
“That means that vehicles in Australia are much more inefficient and more costly to run than in the US or Europe or Japan.”
Sarah Fumei, the project manager for ClimateWorks, said the federal government’s own estimates showed emissions from the transport sector would grow by a further 9% from 2018 to 2030.
She said introducing standards would be “a win-win policy” for the environment and motorists’ hip pockets.
“The Australian government should implement the strongest standard put forward in the 2016 Regulatory Impact Statement, which by 2030 would save motorists $500 a year on fuel and reduce emissions by 12m tonnes,” she said.
“Weaker standards will not achieve the same benefits.”

Links

• Road to nowhere: why Australia lags behind in electric vehicle revolution
• How green are electric cars?
• 'They've done nothing': fuel emissions taskforce accused of 'apathy'
• Australia's annual carbon emissions reach record high
• Australia's annual emissions continue to rise, driven by LNG production
• Half of Australia's emissions increase linked to WA's Gorgon LNG plant
• Australian government backs coal in defiance of IPCC climate warning
• Australia's emissions rise again in 2017, putting Paris targets in doubt
• Australia's greenhouse gas emissions highest on record
• The eco guide to Electric Vehicle hype
• Queensland to build one of the world's longest electric vehicle highways