Greg Hunt says cutting emissions by 30% by 2025 would be an 'onerous' goal

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2025 would be an “onerous” task, Australia’s environment minister has said.

On Tuesday the Climate Change Authority (CCA) recommended the cut and said Australia should also increase its commitment to cut 2000-level emissions by 2020 from 5% to 19% if it wanted to be taken seriously at the Paris climate change talks in December.

Responding to the CCA report on Wednesday, Greg Hunt said the government was on track to meet the 5% 2020 target, but would not commit to further reductions or adopt the suggested targets, which included cutting levels of carbon pollution by between 40% and 60% by 2030.

“On their own numbers – what the CCA is proposing is not just the largest reduction in emissions intensity in the world – but a third more onerous than any other country,” Hunt said.

“We’re currently undertaking broad consultation with the community on the setting of targets for the post-2020 period. The CCA report will be considered as part of this process.”

The government is due to announce its post-2020 target in June.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, reacted cautiously to the CCA report, saying Labor would take the recommendations seriously and be guided by the best science in developing its policy.

He declined to say whether Labor would endorse the suggested long-term targets.

“The Abbott government is a government of climate sceptics run for climate sceptics and their policies are clearly not going to achieve anywhere near the targets that the rest of the world are addressing,” Shorten said.

“We’re working on what our targets should be. We’re interested and most committed to seeing what occurs in the Paris conference and we are certainly ... in the short term demanding the government remove one of the big logjams to a sustainable future for Australian energy... by doing a deal on the renewable energy target.”

The Climate Institute research centre said while the report had identified the scale of action required to reach the internationally agreed goal of limiting warming to 2C above pre-industrial times, its recommendations did not go far enough to ensure that would be met.

The institute’s chief executive, John Connor, said the CCA recommendations opened the door to more credible carbon pollution reductions, but did not go far enough.

“We should be targeting at least 40% reductions by 2025, and 60% by 2030, if we want to help build global efforts that give a strong chance of avoiding 2C,” he said.

“In part, the authority is basing its recommendations on a carbon pollution budget that gives a two-out-of three chance of meeting the internationally agreed goal of avoiding more than 2C warming,” Connor said.

“For a country exposed to extreme weather that is being put on steroids by global warming, Australia should be doing more, and encouraging others to do more as well.”

The national climate change manager for WWF Australia, Kellie Caught, said the key message from the CCA was that Australia needed to “lift its game if we are to protect the people and places we love”.

A joint report from the WWF and the Australian National University’s centre for climate economics and policy released on Tuesday found Australia could achieve zero net emissions by 2050 by harnessing energy efficiency, moving to a zero-carbon electricity system and switching from direct use of fossil fuels to decarbonised electricity.