"Bordering On Incredible" - Australian Conservatives Can't Even Articulate What Their Climate Plan Is
The Coalition is refusing to say if it will introduce any policies to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade as it pledges to unwind most climate measures introduced under Labor. Peter Dutton’s position on the climate crisis came under scrutiny last week after he gave contradictory answers on whether he accepted mainstream climate science. Asked during a leaders’ debate on the ABC whether extreme weather events were worsening, the opposition leader said: “I don’t know because I’m not a scientist”.
Dutton later said he “believes in climate change” and the Coalition was committed to Australia having net zero emissions by 2050. But climate experts said its policies would boost local fossil fuel use, send the country backwards on emissions, put the net zero goal beyond reach and damage its reputation internationally.
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The Grattan Institute’s energy and climate change program director, Tony Wood, said “every single one” of the Coalition’s policies in the area was “a reduction in ambition or slowing down emissions reductions”. “None of it is adding to emissions reductions,” he said. “It would be bordering on incredible to think that we could maintain a commitment to net zero by 2050 with no plans to head us in the direction for the next 10 to 15 years.”
Guardian Australia asked the Coalition if it had any policies that would reduce emissions over the next decade. The shadow minister for climate change and energy, Ted O’Brien, replied it had a “track record of reducing emissions” and would continue to “advocate for solutions that deliver affordable, reliable and sustainable energy for all Australians”. He did not specify a Coalition policy that would cut emissions in the next 10 years.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/20/bordering-on-incredible-coalition-under-fire-for-planning-to-scrap-labor-climate-policies-and-offering-none-of-its-own