The direction of Nationals climate and energy policy could soon be decided at a special party room meeting called to discuss the hot-button issue.
Leader David Littleproud and his colleagues will meet in Canberra amid speculation they will follow the lead of the party’s federal council, which voted on Saturday to ditch support for net-zero emissions from its platform.
The outcome of the party room meeting has not been predetermined but Mr Littleproud was sharply critical of the pursuit of net zero while “the rest of the world is pivoting”.
“We can’t mitigate for the world,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“We’ll peg ourselves to the rest of the world, not streak ahead of them, but stick with them.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose not to remark directly on the possibility of a Nationals’ climate policy that linked Australia’s emissions cuts to the performance of other countries when queried on the sidelines of the APEC summit.
“But on climate change, climate change is real,” he told reporters in South Korea.
“Climate change is having an impact.”
“I’m an advocate for action on climate change, not just by Australia but by the globe because we all need to act.”
The Nationals leader said he believed in human contribution to climate change but thinks the response should have a greater emphasis on adaptation.
“There is not just one way that we can actually address this, not just in mitigation of reducing emissions, but also adaptation,” he said.
Sunday’s party room meeting will be informed by a Page Research Centre report commissioned by the Nationals.
Net-zero policy has become a sore spot within the federal coalition following its convincing May election defeat, with the Liberal Party undertaking its own energy policy review.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley has said she does not want to pursue net zero “at any cost”.
Under the Paris Agreement signed a decade ago, Australia and other member states must increase their emissions reduction targets every five years and cannot water them down.
The Labor government is committed to net zero by 2050 and is chasing an interim target of 62 per cent to 70 per cent emissions cuts by 2035.
A target of 82 per cent of electricity sourced from renewables by 2030 is key to meeting climate its goals.
Households, the economy and the environment will all be hit hard by unchecked climate change, Australia’s first National Climate Risk Assessment revealed in September.
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
