Climate change academics call for Australia to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15pc by 2020
This week's announcement by the US and China to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has ramped up calls for the Government to announce cuts of its own for beyond 2020.
But a growing chorus of climate change academics are calling on the Australian Government to concentrate first on what it is doing before 2020.
They want the Government to lift its greenhouse gas reduction targets from 5 to 15 per cent by then.
The academics said this week's announcement by the US and China meant Australia was obliged to meet the higher target because international conditions were met under the 2009 Copenhagen agreement.
That meeting was roundly seen as a failure, but Professor Stephen Howes, director of the Development Policy Centre at the ANU has a different view.
"Although, at the time, it was perceived as a failure, in hindsight, we should view it as a success, because we went from a situation where only a small number of developed countries had targets, to a situation where countries responsible for 80 per cent of emissions had targets, and as we see now, those targets are now being tightened," he said.
15 per cent reduction target attainable: experts
At Copenhagen, Australia pledged to cut emissions by a minimum of 5 per cent if there was no international agreement. But that was the minimum commitment of a range that went as high as 25 per cent.
"The 15 per cent was if there was an agreement that would be able to limit temperature increases to about three degrees and the 25 per cent was if there was an agreement that would limit temperature increases to two degrees," Professor Howes said.
Shortly after Copenhagen, Tony Abbott as opposition leader, wrote to then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, and said the coalition's bipartisan support for emission reduction targets remained unchanged.
Nothing the Government has said since indicates it has wavered from that view.
The conditions to reach the 25 per cent figure are not in place.
But many argue the conditions are in place for Australia to ramp up its greenhouse cuts to 15 per cent below 2000 levels.
Economist Professor Ross Garnaut authored a review which recommended the 5 to 25 per cent cuts.
"If the other developed countries took comparable steps and developing countries did something, we'd go to minus 15 [per cent]," he said.
Now others including climate policy analyst, Associate Professor Peter Christoff, are adding to the call for greater cuts.
"To be honest ... Australia should have been aiming for 15 per cent and even more than that for a number of years now," he said.
"But this certainly convincingly shows that the major emitters have got a deal and Australia therefore should be moving to, at minimum, 15 per cent."
Professor Howes said this week's announcement by China and the United States to cut emissions meant the conditions were right for Australia to adopt the 15 per cent target.
