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Carbon emissions are responsible for Australia’s hotter and drier conditions, increasing the risk of additional droughts and bushfires.
The Australian government is in no rush to subscribe to a net zero carbon emissions target by 2050, although it recognizes the importance of working towards that target, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a published interview Saturday.
Morrison’s Conservative government, in a surprise policy change last month, said it would meet its 2030 carbon emissions pledge under the Paris climate agreement without counting carbon credits exceeding its previous climate targets.
But in an interview with the Australian newspaper, Morrison said he would not bring a new emissions reduction target for 2030 or 2035 to a key United Nations climate conference in Glasgow in November.
“It is a question of knowing if you can produce hydrogen at the right cost, it is a question of knowing whether [carbon capture and storage] can be done at the right cost, it’s about whether we can produce low-emission steel and aluminum at the right cost, ”Morrison said, quoted by the newspaper.
“This is how you get to net zero. You can’t do it just by having a certain commitment. This is where the discussion needs to go, and I think [US President Joe] Biden’s administration offers an opportunity to really pursue this with some enthusiasm.
Australia’s emissions are now expected to be 29% below 2005 levels by 2030, compared to the Paris Agreement target of reducing carbon emissions by 26-28%, based on the recent growth in renewables and what could be achieved under an 18 Australian dollar ($ 14 billion) Technology Investment Plan presented by the government in September.
“We all want to make it happen,” Morrison said. “It’s no longer about politics, it’s about technology.”
No more extreme heat expected
He added that the timeline for committing to a net zero emissions goal will depend on “where the science is and where our assessment is based on the technologies.”
Australia is expected to become hotter and drier, increasing the risk of drought and extreme weather events such as bushfires that have devastated swathes of land, according to the country’s latest climate report from the country’s weather office released in November. its south-eastern region in 2019.
The latest state of the climate report from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) attributes carbon emissions to the increase in extreme heat, noting that a warmer Australia will affect the lives and livelihoods of all who are there. live.
Australia’s climate has warmed by an average of 1.44 degrees Celsius since the national records began in 1910, according to the report. The country experienced its hottest year on record in 2019, and the seven years from 2013 to 2019 were all ranked among the nine hottest years in history, the BoM said.
Australia as a whole is also reporting more ‘extremely hot’ days with 43 reported in 2019, more than triple the number in years prior to 2000.
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