NATION UN gives Australia climate fail mark

AUSTRALIA is not on track to meet its Paris climate commitments, according to the United Nations.

The UN Emissions Gap Report for 2018 says Australia’s emissions are projected to be “well above” its target of a 26- 28 per cent reduction on 2005 carbon emissions levels by 2030.

“The latest projection published by the ( Australian) Government shows that emissions would remain at high levels rather than reducing in line with the 2030 target,” the report, released yesterday, says.

The forecast puts Australia among about half of G20 countries falling short of their Paris commitments, including Canada, the US and South Africa. As a result, the G20 group is collectively not on track to hit its targets, with the report suggesting members needed to improve emissions reduction policies.

Even higher targets would be needed for the world to avoid global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C above pre- industrial levels.

That comes as carbon dioxide emissions rose last year, after three years of stagnation.

UN environment program executive director Joyce Msuya says the world is at last beginning to “tackle its fossil fuel addiction”.

“Coal is no longer competitive, and wind farms and solar installations are gathering pace – in Australia, northern Europe, China, India and else- where,” she wrote. But she said the science indicated change was not happening nearly as quickly as it needed to.

“The message is clear: we need to make an almost existential change, the solutions are there, and we have no excuse. The key is to understand we are not powerless in the face of climate change ... The only missing link is leadership.”

Labor climate spokesman Mark Butler said the report showed it was a “slap in the face” that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had maintained Australia would meet its Paris targets “in a canter”.

“The Government’s own data, and now the UN, show that under Scott Morrison’s hopeless climate change policies, carbon pollution will continue to rise all the way to 2030,” he said yesterday.

Mr Morrison said people wanted the Government to be “sensible” when it came to climate policy.

“We take reasonable and sensible policies in terms of managing our climate,” he told 2GB radio on Wednesday.