Australia to be quizzed on climate policy at UN meetings in Germany

Australia will be quizzed on its carbon emission reduction policies during United Nations climate change meetings in Germany this week.

The 10-day meetings in Bonn are part of negotiations in the lead-up to December’s climate change conference in Paris, where all countries are hoping to sign an agreement to cut carbon pollution.

The international community has agreed to limit global warming to two degrees and countries have begun submitting their emissions reduction plans post-2020.

Under a new multilateral assessment process, countries can grill each other about their climate change policies.

Australia is scheduled for questioning on Thursday.

With a number of countries including the United States pledging ambitious targets, Simon Bradshaw of Oxfam Australia said Australia’s turn in the spotlight will be an important test of the country’s international credibility on climate change.

“Australia is under increasing pressure to up its game,” Bradshaw said.

The world’s largest polluters including China and the United States last month submitted questions for Australia to answer – a separate part of the multilateral questioning process.

The nations queried whether Australia can meet its 5% emissions reduction target by 2020 and why the country isn’t doing more.

China accused Australia of unfairly expecting other advanced nations to set more ambitious targets than it has itself, directly asking the government to “clarify the fairness of such requirements”.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt maintains Australia is on track to meet or beat its five per cent emissions reduction target on 2000 levels by 2020.

The federal government is expected to submit Australia’s post-2020 emissions reduction targets to the UN in July.