In response to the leaking of Labor’s updated emission’s targets, which are weaker than Labor took to the previous Federal Election, the ACT Greens have expressed dismay at the state of climate policy in Australia. 

“Today’s announcement is a devastating betrayal, massively out of step with the climate science, community expectations, and their stated commitment to climate action,” said Tim Hollo, Greens candidate for Canberra.

Federal Labor has pledged to cut emissions 43 per cent by 2030 if it wins power at the election – less than the 45 per cent cut Bill Shorten took to the polls in 2019. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said Labor’s plan would create 604,000 jobs, five out of six of them in the regions, and cut household power bills by $275 a year by 2025.

“After bushfires that devastated our east coast, an IPCC report that gave us 10 years to decarbonise our economy, and a Glasgow summit that saw the world finally beginning to move, it’s devastating that Labor is weakening its targets,” Mr Hollo said. 

“These targets are weaker than those set by the Business Council of Australia, most of the States and Territories, the UK, European Union, Canada, and the United States. Labor needs to catch up.”

The Coalition government, meanwhile, has set a 2030 target of a 26-to-28 per cent emissions cut on 2005 levels, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison projected a cut of between 30 and 35 per cent.

“Canberra’s Federal Labor MPs keep telling Canberrans that they care about the climate crisis, but they are being repeatedly hung out to dry by their party’s political cowardice and commitment to fossil fuel donors,” Mr Hollo said.

“Just like so-called “moderate” Liberals who keep voting with Barnaby Joyce, Canberra’s Labor MPs consistently vote to subsidise new fossil fuel projects, and to support a climate policy that is nowhere near good enough. In both cases, the community is looking elsewhere for MPs they can trust to vote with their values.

“Labor MPs who say progressive things but keep voting to expand coal and gas will find many of their voters looking to the Greens as the only option.”

In the balance of power, Mr Hollo said the Greens would ensure that a new Labor government took serious climate action, just like in the ACT.