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Paris 2015: 40 per cent Australian carbon emissions cut by 2030 fair, envoy says
By Peter Hannam
- Other ministers seen as more keen than Abbott on climate
- Paris Climate Change Conference 2015: Full coverage
The Abbott government should commit at the Paris climate summit to double the long-term rate at which Australia is now cutting its greenhouse gas emissions, a senior French official said.
According to a "provisional evaluation" based in part on United Nations figures, Australia's current goal of reducing emissions by 5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2020 will amount to a 20 per cent cut by 2030 if the same trajectory is maintained, said Nicolas Hulot, a special climate envoy to French President Francois Hollande.
All nations, including Australia, will be pressed to make deep carbon cuts post-2020.Credit: Bloomberg
"Ideally, by 2030, Australia will have to reduce by 40 per cent its emissions on 2000 [levels]," Mr Hulot told Australian journalists in Paris on Wednesday.
The calculations were based in part on Australia's relative contribution to the emissions that most scientists say are leading to global warming. The data was processed and published by FNH, Mr Hulot's own foundation, and drew on sources including the World Resources Institute, an assistant to Mr Hulot said.
Not all smiles: Prime Minister Tony Abbott is being pressed to do more on climate. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The Abbott government is not expected to reveal the post-2020 emissions goals until next month after it assesses submissions from state governments, the public and other sources.
The independent Climate Change Authority - which the federal government had tried to scrap - recommended in April that Australia's "fair contribution to global climate action" to keep warming to less than 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels would be 40-60 per cent by 2030 compared with 2000 levels.
Mr Hulot, a well-known French environmentalist who ran against Mr Hollande as The Greens candidate in the 2011 elections, said the recommended targets should be finalised by September at the United Nations.
"We want a global agreement that is legally binding and that will allow us to not go beyond the 2 degree limit," he said.
About 195 nations and the European Union are expected to attend the Paris summit that is expected to start on November 30 and run for more than two weeks.
Big cuts
Other developed countries should also make greater contributions than are already on the table, Mr Hulot said.
The EU has pledged to cut 1990 levels of carbon pollution by 40 per cent by 2030 but that goal should be raised to 50 per cent, Mr Hulot said.
The United States, too, should lift its current pledge of reducting 2005-level emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 to a cut of as much as 45 per cent, he said.
China, the biggest current emitter by far, will be urged to bring forward its pledge of peaking emissions by 2030 to 2025, Mr Hulot said.
"Saddened"
The official, whose full title is a special envoy to the French president for the protection of the planet, said he was "saddened" by the stance on climate change taken by Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Australia's role in the run-up to Paris to secure a new climate treaty "is an essential one, whether postive or negative", Mr Hulot said.
"If Australia were not to respond postively during the meeting ... it would be a tragic signal that Australia doesn't care very much," he said.
Mr Hulot acknowledged that countries such as Australia and Canada face necessary economic changees "that would be much more difficult" given their relatively high reliance on fossil fuels, such as coal.
Still, "it would be mistaken if you think prosperity and wealth will continue if we allow climate change to take hold", he said.
On the one hand, the planet would need to feed another 1.5 billion people by 2050 even without additional strains from climate change on the biosphere. On the other, renewable energy offered nations opportunities to foster growth while cutting emissions.
"Tomorrow's market will not be a carbon market but a non-carbon one," he said, adding, "You can be the subject of history or you can write it."
Peter Hannam is in France as a guest of the French government.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the source of the 2030 cuts as the United Nations. An assistant to Mr Hulot later attributed the figures as only indirectly based on UN information.