Australia Stops Payments To Green Climate Fund

Climate Home News - Karl Mathiesen

Australian budget offers nothing to flagship UN scheme as its board seeks replenishment, while climate shapes as divisive election issue

Despite broad public concern about rising drought and bushfire risk, Australia's government has failed to bring emissions down. (Photo: Commons/virtualsteve)

Australia will stop contributions to the UN’s major fund for battling climate change this year, according to government budget papers released on Tuesday.
With a federal election looming, the government followed up on prime minister Scott Morrison’s threat not to “tip money into that big climate fund”.
Since 2015, Australia has given $187m to the fund, which finances projects in the developing world that cut emissions or promote resilience to climate impacts. The budget document said Australia made its “final” contribution of $19.2m in December.
Around a third of Australia’s overseas development budget is spent in the climate-vulnerable Pacific. But the Australia Institute’s Richie Merzian said multilateral institutions, such as the Green Climate Fund, were able to leverage private investment in projects in “a way that the Australian Government has struggled to do”.
“The GCF has co-financing capabilities and regional coverage that Australia couldn’t possibly provide,” he said. Merzian also noted that Australia’s overall aid budget was dropping when measured against the growing economy.
In a statement, Oxfam Australia said the budget was a “catastrophic failure of leadership in the face of the climate crisis – which is out of step with a majority of Australians – and growing inequality and it undermines the future of our Pacific neighbours”.
The Green Climate Fund formed part of a compact between poor and rich countries that was the basis for the Paris climate agreement. Having spent nearly half of its original $10.3bn allocation, the fund has signalled it intends to start raising new finance from developed countries this year.
By the time the hat is passed around, Australia’s position may have changed. The country is expected to hold elections next month, with the major parties sharply divergent on climate policy.
In a speech last year, shadow foreign minister Penny Wong said “it goes without saying” Labor would “be willing to work with” multilateral organisations including the Green Climate Fund to combat global warming.
This week, Labor gave an indication of the domestic climate package it will take to the poll. The partial release indicated it will try to revive the national energy guarantee, formerly a government scheme that saw Australia’s last prime minster overthrown in favour of Morrison.
The Labor version is more stringent and would cut emissions in the electricity sector 45% on 2005 levels by 2030. (The now-dropped coalition government plan aimed for 26%.) Labor also pledged that half of all new cars sold would be electric by 2030.
Polling puts the opposition Labor party, with leader Bill Shorten, in the lead. The government, on the defensive, has called Labor’s climate policy a “Trojan horse for a carbon tax” and announced tax cuts in a bid to win back voters.
In its budget, the Liberal-National coalition announced $2bn over 15 years to finance what treasurer Josh Frydenberg called “practical emission reduction activities”. These include funding farmers and indigenous land managers to store carbon in the soil.
“Through our measures, as we have done in the past, we will beat our international emission reduction targets,” Frydenberg said on Tuesday.
Australia’s emissions grew last year by 0.9%, according to the latest government data. The country has been criticised for using a system of pollution credits from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to meet its targets while allowing real emissions to continue rising. Labor has said it would close that loophole.
The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive officer Kelly O’Shanassy said the scheme needed reform to close loopholes that could see some of that money spent upgrading old fossil fuel plants.
The amount available for climate projects pales in comparison to fuel tax breaks for businesses, O’Shanassy added. “In this budget the government plans to spend $4.36 subsidising pollution for every dollar it spends on climate action.”

Links

• The Green Climate Fund
• Federal Budget 2019: Environment Restoration Fund Secures $100 Million To Cut Waste, Protect Threatened Species
• Australian selected as head of the Green Climate Fund
• Australia won’t give money to Green Climate Fund, says PM
• Australia pledges $165 million to Green Climate Fund
• Australia starves green fund, denting climate credibility
• 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
• Why is tiny Nauru getting $26.9m in climate finance to build a port?

Labor's Climate Change Policy Explained: Here's What We Know

The Guardian - Katharine Murphy

As the partisan debate roars back to life with Coalition claims of ‘carbon tax 2.0’, these are the facts

Bill Shorten charges an electric car after launching Labor’s climate change policy in Canberra on Monday.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP 

Just days before the federal election is called, Labor has released the final component of its climate change policy. Scott Morrison has promptly declared it is carbon tax 2.0 and the regulations will impose massive costs on Australians. Given this partisan debate, which has paralysed Australian politics for a decade, has been characterised by hyperbole and misinformation, let’s work through this latest policy instalment, sector by sector, and then consider the implications.

Energy
Labor says if it wins the coming election it will try to implement the national energy guarantee abandoned by the Coalition, with a higher emissions reduction target – 45% by 2030. The government’s electricity target was 26%. If the Coalition in opposition declines to support the Neg, Labor will pursue plan B. Plan B involves topping up the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to the tune of $10bn and a new $5bn fund to modernise ageing transmission infrastructure. The objective of the intervention is to drive higher take-up of renewables in the grid. Labor has a target of sourcing 50% of electricity from renewables by 2030. Coupled with this, a Just Transition Authority will be established to help manage the retirement of the coal fleet, with generators required to give three years’ notice of closure.

Heavy industry
As well as reviving the national energy guarantee, Labor is borrowing another existing Coalition policy to bring down industrial pollution. It will use the current safeguard mechanism, which is part of the Direct Action scheme, but will extend coverage so that more companies are captured. The scheme works like this: companies are allocated baselines, and if they pollute above that level, they need to buy carbon credits (more about this is in minute), which imposes a cost on their business. Labor says it will reduce pollution in the covered entities by 45% on 2005 levels by 2030, but is planning to consult with firms on what their baseline should be, and about the specific emissions reduction trajectory for each entity. It is also planning to assist emissions-intensive trade-exposed companies with the transition.

Transport
The approach in transport is two pronged. Labor is proposing to introduce vehicle emissions standards “in line with” 105 grams of CO2 pollution per kilometre, which is the same as the US. The standard is imposed on car retailers (not manufacturers), which means car dealers will have to offset sales of high-emissions vehicles with sales of low-emissions vehicles. Coupled with this, Labor is setting targets for the take up of electric vehicles. It wants a national EV target of 50% of new sales by 2030, and a government fleet target of 50% of new sales by 2025, and it will also allow businesses to claim deductions if they buy EVs valued at more than $20,000. It will also require all federally funded road upgrades to incorporate EV charging infrastructure.
Given Labor will impose significantly tougher pollution rules than the Coalition, it also wants to boost the supply of carbon offsets. With this market becoming more important, Labor is flagging a new certification framework to ensure that carbon credits are sufficiently high quality. It will also strengthen the Carbon Farming Initiative, which allows farmers and landholders to generate carbon credits which they can sell on the carbon market. It will also allow heavy emitters to use international permits to meet their pollution reduction requirements, but Labor is not yet saying what limits might apply. It will not use carryover credits from the Kyoto period, which the Morrison government intends to use to help meet the Paris target.

Agriculture
Farmers are largely off the hook in Labor’s policy. On the positive side of the ledger there are opportunities to generate carbon credits, which generates income. The sting is land clearing. Labor is signalling it wants to extend the Queensland regime to other jurisdictions, working through the Council of Australian Governments process. That’s a principle though. There’s no detail beyond that in the policy.

Will the policy cut pollution by 45% on 2005 levels by 2030?
This is the big question. Unsurprisingly, given the toxic history, the Morrison government has resumed hollering about carbon taxes and environmental regulations that will bring Australia to its knees, but the fact is we don’t have a number of important details that would allow anyone to make fact-based conclusions. Labor says we’ll have a new vehicle emissions standard, but hasn’t said when that will apply, or the specific level of emissions reduction from transport it is factoring in as a consequence. Similarly Labor is arguing it will achieve a 45% cut from heavy emitters while allowing caveats like consultations on baselines and trajectories. Labor is not planning to release a carbon budget, which would make transparent estimates about the level of pollution cuts it is factoring-in in each sector. It is unable to say how carbon trading between the energy and industrial sectors might work because the proposed regulatory frameworks are conceptual rather than fully fleshed out. Given there are stakeholders sitting on the sidelines ready to go to war, and the Coalition is hoping that calling something that isn’t a carbon tax a carbon tax (again) represents a sound political strategy with an election in sight – the vagueness from Labor is deliberate. But there are significant unanswered questions here.

Will this policy happen, even if Labor wins?
Another big question. The Coalition is not showing any sign of having a substantial conversion on climate change. Labor will likely need the Greens to get various changes legislated and the Greens will want a higher level of ambition than is evident in this policy. The Greens will want Labor to execute a faster transition away from coal, and they are already saying no to the use of international permits. So it’s entirely possible that the long unproductive deadlock will continue. We have a long way to go.

Links

• 50% of new cars to be electric vehicles by 2030 under Labor climate change policy
• Coalition promises one-off energy payments as Labor pledges to 'reset' budget
• Labor's Emissions Trading Scheme
• Greens blast key part of Labor's climate policy as 'fake action'
• Labor's climate change policy explained: here's what we know
• Labor to tighten emissions regime as it draws climate battle-lines
• Morrison government seeks to divide Labor and unions over emissions
• Coalition says Labor must use Kyoto credits – but also that they make little difference
• Australian government backs coal in defiance of IPCC climate warning
• Richard Di Natale: I will work with Labor to get action on climate change
• Greens electric car push: end sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030

Coalition's Climate Solutions Fund Must Last A Further Five Years

The Guardian - Paul Karp

The $2bn promised for Australia’s greenhouse gas abatement projects will be spread over 15 years, not 10, Tuesday’s budget revealed

Emissions from a coal fired power station. The Coalition effectively cut funding to reduce emissions in Tuesday’s budget. Photograph: Ashley Cooper/Getty Images 

The Coalition plans to spend its $2bn “climate solutions fund” over 15 years, not 10, as promised when it unveiled the rebadged emissions reduction policy in February.
The decision, revealed in Tuesday’s budget, effectively cuts the amount spent per year from $200m to $133m over the life of the fund, which pays polluters to implement greenhouse gas abatement projects.
Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, has accused Scott Morrison of already cutting the “main policy to deliver his weak 2030 pollution reduction targets”, while the Greens attacked the Coalition for spending just $189m over the first four years.
The $2bn relaunch of the Abbott-era emissions reduction fund was part of the Morrison government’s effort to bolster its environmental credentials in the face of rising community concern about the impact of climate change and challenges from independent candidates targeting the Liberal party on its climate record.
In February the prime minister’s office briefed journalists, including Guardian Australia, that $2bn would be invested over 10 years in the climate fund to build on the ERF’s record of reducing emissions by 193m tonnes.

On 25 February Scott Morrison told Sky News the Emissions Reduction Fund was a $2bn investment “over the next 10 years”, a comment he repeated in a speech the following day.
But in the budget papers released on Tuesday, the climate solutions fund is allocated $2bn over 15 years from 2019-20, including $189m over four years.
Butler said: “This was the policy that was meant to do the heavy lifting to deliver the government’s 2030 emission reduction targets, even though government data projects Australia will fail to meet even this government’s weak emission reduction targets.
“This is a budget from a government that has given up governing, and never tried to deliver real climate action.”
The Greens climate spokesman, Adam Bandt, said the government planned to spend just $189m over four years on “its signature climate ‘policy’”, noting “there’s more new money for the Cairns ring road than for climate change” in the 2019 budget.

Labor’s climate policy is to reduce emissions in the electricity sector by 45% by 2030.
On Monday Labor added a target for the rollout of electric vehicles, the promise to introduce vehicle emissions standards and to beef up the safeguard mechanism to impose new pollution reduction requirements for the aviation sector, cement, steel and aluminium, mining and gas, direct combustion and the non-electricity energy sectors.
The budget showed that the balance of the Coalition’s $3.5bn climate solutions package includes:

• Up to $1.38bn in equity over six years for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project and $5.5m for oversight of that project
• $61.2m for the energy efficient communities program
• $56m for a feasibility study for the second inter-connector between Tasmania and the mainland
• $18m on energy efficiency; and
• $400,000 to develop a national electric vehicle strategy

An investigation by Guardian Australia last year found it was often difficult to determine if the emissions reduction fund was offering value for money.
Malcolm Turnbull, who once branded the approach “a recipe for fiscal recklessness on a grand scale”, let the ERF dwindle to almost nothing as he pursued policy alternatives, including the national energy guarantee resisted by conservatives and dumped by Morrison shortly after he took the Liberal leadership last year.

Links

• Federal Budget 2019: Environment Restoration Fund Secures $100 Million To Cut Waste, Protect Threatened Species
• 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
• Labor's climate change policy explained: here's what we know
• 'Woefully dirty': government accused over Australia's failure to cut vehicle emissions

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