‘Worse than Morrison’: PM blasts Dutton

Anthony Albanese has accused Peter Dutton of being “worse than Scott Morrison on climate change” after the Opposition Leader signalled he would shelve Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction target if elected at the next federal poll.

On Saturday, Mr Dutton said the Coalition would abandon the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, arguing the Albanese government would fail to meet the target which is largely reliant on the decarbonisation of the national energy grid.

Speaking in Canberra on Monday, the Prime Minister accused the Opposition Leader of “walking away” from action on climate change.

“His decision to abandon the 2030 target means he is walking away from the Paris Accord. If you walk away from the Paris Accord, you’ll be standing with Libya, Yemen, and Iran, and against all of our major trading partners and all of our important allies,“ Mr Albanese told reporters.

“Peter Dutton has never believed in taking action on climate change and the Coalition has been a mess.

“For 10 years, they had 22 policies and didn’t land one. We’ve had one policy, we landed it.”

Mr Albanese accused Mr Dutton of being “afraid of the future”.

“He’s incapable of leading Australia towards the future that we need. Peter Dutton is worse than Scott Morrison on climate change,” Mr Albanese said.

Official projections released in November by the Climate Change Authority showed the government was within striking distance of achieving its interim target, and is forecast to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent.

Despite the projections, Mr Albanese said the government’s investments in the intervening period meant Australia was “on track” to meet its commitments under the Paris Accord.

“Since then we’ve had significant new policies announced that will further enhance the opportunities,” he said.

“I’m very confident, not only that we can get there, but importantly, that we must get there.”

Much of Australia’s decarbonisation efforts will rely on Labor achieving a separate target to increase the share of renewable generation in the national electricity market to 82 per cent by the end of the decade which is similarly falling short of its goal.

With Labor attempting to wedge the Coalition over its interim targets, opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien clarified on Monday morning clarified that the Coalition was “absolutely committed” to the Paris agreement, and would retain Labor’s 2050 net-zero target.

“We remain committed to Paris and to net zero. Any shorter-term targets will be informed by the state of the economy, the trajectory of emissions and our suite of policies,” Mr O’Brien said.