3 months ago
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The Liberal Party has formally agreed to dump the 2050 net zero target but will remain open to a carbon-neutral future as a “welcome outcome”.
A shadow ministerial meeting on Thursday morning confirmed the decision after Wednesday’s party room meeting showed a majority of the party’s MPs were in favour of dumping the target.
Sussan Ley arriving at the party room meeting on Wednesday. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The meeting of Liberal frontbenchers agreed to remain in the Paris Agreement, set interim climate targets when in government, and maintain a watered-down aspiration to net zero as a “welcome outcome” without using taxes or government mechanisms to get to net zero, according to several shadow ministers speaking on background about the deliberations.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is expected to address the media this afternoon.
On Wednesday, about 60 per cent of the 51 Liberals in federal government spoke in favour of rejecting the Morrison-era target in a nearly five-hour meeting of party MPs, clearing the path for Ley to take the fight to Labor with a radically reshaped energy policy.
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The anti-net zero majority in the room was driven by a group of right-wingers, led by Senator James Paterson, who had resolved in recent weeks to walk away from net zero.
No MPs talked in Wednesday’s meeting about splitting from the Nationals, and several spoke strongly in favour of keeping the Coalition together. None of the Moderates who spoke made threats to quit the frontbench if net zero was dumped entirely.
Earlier on Thursday, prominent moderate Senator Dave Sharma urged his party to remain committed to climate action with ongoing emissions reduction targets.
Sharma has previously said the Liberals should reconsider the Coalition agreement if the party cannot reconcile with the Nationals hardline position on climate action.
“The best credentials you can have are meeting the targets that you set for yourself,” Sharma said today.
“We’re saying let’s be realistic about what is achievable based on the technology.”
On Sunday, the Liberal and National party rooms will meet to agree on the formal Coalition position on climate emissions. The Nationals have already ditched the net zero target, while insisting they will not walk away from the Paris Agreement.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said earlier on Thursday morning that the Liberals were seeking to “go backwards” on climate action.
“What we know is that the pace of change in society is fast if you stand still, the world moves past you,” Albanese said.
The prime minister pointed to net zero being a policy adopted by the Morrison government, and ridiculed the opposition for becoming “more right-wing, more sceptical, more in denial about climate change,” after successive election losses in 2022 and 2025.
The peak representative groups of Australia’s mining, gas, manufacturing and energy sectors told this masthead that they remain committed to the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, as did the nation’s largest individual polluter AGL and major employers Coles and Woolworths.
“There’s no industry interest in going backward on net zero. Reopening that debate is akin to asking Australian businesses to stop investing and stand by to watch the political equivalent of a refight of the Battle of Stalingrad. It serves no good purpose,” Australian Industry Group chief Innes Willox said.
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Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said abandoning net zero would mean the Liberal Party was aligning with global action that would see the world’s temperature rise more than 3 degrees above industrial levels, resulting in more deaths and higher costs from floods, fires and heatwaves.
“This is a plan to let climate change rip,” she said. “What the Coalition is really advocating for is a more dangerous future for all Australians.”
More to come...
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