SUBMISSION
April 2015
ISSUES PAPER: Setting Australia’s post-2020 target for greenhouse gas emissions
Submission from: Coffs Coast Climate Action Group
Contact: Anthony Johnson
The Coffs Coast Climate Action Group (CCCAG) is an energetic and diverse community of
local residents working as a collective to promote climate change awareness and action at the
regional level and input into policy development at all three levels of government. We formed in
late 2013, and have a core membership of thirty very active people, and a growing network of
around 250 people.
General Comments
Limiting future global warming to below 2°C
The 196 nations that are parties to the UNFCCC, including Australia, have agreed, and
reaffirmed, that collective global action should put the world on a path to avoid an increase in
global temperature of 2°C above pre-industrial levels. The Australian Government reaffirmed
this agreement at COP19 and COP20. The Government’s Issues Paper is seeking advice on
setting Australia’s post-2020 emissions targets. These Targets will be part of Australia’s
Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the goal of limiting future global
warming to below 2°C.
CCCAG is concerned that the issues paper does not mention this goal. Instead the paper refers to
the International Energy Agency (IEA) “New Policies Scenario” from the World Energy Outlook
2014 which would see a disastrous increase in global temperature of 3.6 to 4°C.
As a country very exposed to climate change, it is in Australia’s national interest that collective
action is at least consistent with this goal of limiting future global warming to below 2°C.
Warming above this level would have severe impacts on the natural systems on which we
depend, significantly increase risks to health from more extreme climate events and exceed the
adaptive capacity of many key economic sectors. Australia’s post-2020 green house gas
emissions reductions targets need to be clearly articulated as a fair contribution towards this
global effort.
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Australia’s 2000-2020 target
The Issues Paper states that Australia’s emissions reduction target is a 5% reduction to 2020 off a
2000 baseline. However, as part of the Cancun Climate Agreement 2010, Australia actually
agreed to reduce emissions by 5 – 25% by 2020 off a 2000 baseline, depending on the action of
other countries. Analysis by the Climate Change Authority (CCA)i shows that all the conditions
for a higher 2020 target have been met. The CCA recommends that Australia should have a
2020 target of 19% emissions reductions from 2000 (this allows for the 4% carryover from the
previous Kyoto period).
CCCAG is in agreement with the CCA recommendation and proposes that Australia’s 2020
emissions reductions target should be increased from the current weak 5% target to 19% from a
2000 baseline. If we do not increase our ambition pre 2020, the post 2020 task will be
significantly more difficult and expensive.
Australia’s post-2020 targets
CCCAG understands that Australia is capable of achieving deep cuts to our greenhouse gas
emissions resulting in net zero carbon emissions within two decades. This understanding is
supported by numerous in-depth studies that have shown that deep cuts to our emissions are
technically feasible and can be achieved at a low cost.ii iii iv
We propose that Australia sets milestone targets with the aim of completely decarbonising the
economy by 2035. Proposed emissions reduction targets from a 2000 baseline are:
YEAR
2025
2030
2035
Emissions reduction target
50%
80%
Carbon neutrality
CCCAG believes that the proposed targets represent an ambitious but fair and achievable
contribution on Australia’s part to avoiding dangerous climate change. We argue that the
proposed targets are fair in that Australia is a rich country (one of the highest of all nations in per
capita GDP), and also currently has the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the
OECD.
Australia needs to be seen by the international community as “pulling our weight”. This is
fundamental to Australia’s influence in international negotiations, and to our national interest in
increasing the ambition of other countries’ efforts to reduce emissions.
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Advantages of transitioning away from fossil fuels
The transition from a fossil fuels based economy to one based on renewable energy has
significant advantages beyond the primary benefit of minimising changes to our climate. These
benefits include new jobs, improved energy security, reduced air and water pollution and land
degradation, improved public health and lessening the impacts on ecosystems.
Public Health Implications of Coal
In 2009 the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ASTE) estimated
the health impacts of coal cost taxpayers $2.6bn per yearv. The Climate Council’s 2015 Briefing
Paper states that coal mining and burning coal for electricity emits toxic and carcinogenic
substances into our air, water and land. Coal pollution is linked to the development of
potentially fatal diseases and studies have shown severe health impacts on miners, workers and
local communities. Australia’s heavy reliance on coal for electricity generation and massive coal
industry expansion present significant risks to the health of communities, families and
individualsvi
CCCAG believes that coal production for both domestic use and export should be phased out as
quickly as possible.
Policies that could assist to achieve the Emissions Reduction Targets
The Government has not conducted any modelling on the ERF. Consequently, CCCAG relies on
modelling and analysis of the ERF by a number of private organisationsvii. These all conclude
that the ERF as currently designed and funded will struggle to meet even the modest 5% 2020
target set by the Government and would be prohibitively expensive to achieve targets that will
need to be achieved in future.
CCCAG suggests that the Government will need to implement a range of other policy measures
to meet the higher emissions targets that will be required of us. These would include the
following approaches.
Decarbonisation of the Stationary Electricity Sector
The electricity sector produces 33% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Coal’s share of
total electricity generation in March 2015 was 75%. It is crucial that this sector be targeted for
significant emissions reductions. Australia has abundant renewable energy resources in wind,
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solar and also biomas from agricultural residue and plantations and should rapidly transition to a
combination of these renewable energy sources for grid supplied electricityviii.
Policy measures to achieve this transition would include retaining the current Renewable Energy
Target at 41,000GWh to 2020 and increasing the RET to at least 50% by 2030. This will mean
significant new investment in Australia and new jobs. Other policy measures would include a
price on carbon pollution without the handouts to big polluters and an emissions trading scheme.
It would also be desirable for the Government to impose a carbon duty on imported goods. This
would be waived upon the importer demonstrating the country of origin of the goods had a
carbon price of the same or higher level than in Australia.
Aggressively improve energy productivity
We note the Energy White paper proposes to improve energy productivity by up to 40% by
2030. Given the US and the EU are proposing to double energy productivity by 2030, Australia
is being left behind and will be competitively disadvantaged. Improving energy productivity can
make a significant contribution to increases in overall national productivity. We propose that
the Government targets at least a doubling in energy productivity by 2025. This can be achieved
by improving the way energy is used in the economy through energy efficiency, including by the
adoption of more efficient technologies and processes in buildings and manufacture. The
Beyond Zero Emissions Australia Building Planix demonstrates how all existing buildings can
reach zero emissions from their operations within 10 years.
Another important measure to improve energy productivity is to immediately increase fuel
efficiency standards for new light and heavy vehicles. In the slightly longer term Government
should promote the transition of the transport sector from the current almost complete reliance on
fossil fuels to electric vehicles. These measures have the added benefit of improving energy
security and reducing atmospheric pollution.
Removal of all fossil fuel subsidies
Analysis of the Governments Tax Expenditure Statement reveals a range of measures within the
Australian Federal tax system that encourage the production and use of fossil fuels. This
amounts to over $10bn per year of tax payer money used to subsidise fossil fuelsx. It is clearly
counterproductive for the Government to be encouraging the use of fossil fuels through tax payer
funded subsidies while at the same time working to reduce the emissions from fossil fuel use.
These distorting subsidies should be phased down and completely removed within five years.
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References
i
The Climate Institute, 2013a, Submission to the Emission Reduction Fund Terms of Reference.
CCA (2014) “Reducing Australia’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Targets and Progress Review – Final Report”
iii
Climate Works Australia and ANU (2014) “Deep Decarbonisation Pathways”
iv
WWF and ANU (2015) “Australia Can Cut Emissions Deeply and the Cost is Low”
v
ASTE (2009) “The Hidden Costs of Electricity Externalities of Power Generation in Australia”
vi
Climate Council Briefing Paper (2015) “Health Effects of Coal”
vii
O Kember et al (2013) “GHG Mitigation in Australia: An overview of the current policy landscape”. World
Resources Institute.
viii
Beyond Zero Emissions (2010) “Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan”
ix
Beyond Zero Emissions (2013) “Zero Carbon Australia Buildings Plan”
x
http://www.marketforces.org.au/ffs/where-your-taxes-go/
ii
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