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Kelvin Thomson MP lambasts Abbott Government over low climate targets

August 16, 2015 at 4:51 pm John Englart Leave a comment

Kelvin Thomson, Moreland’s Federal MP for the seat of Wills in the House of Representatives, rebuked the Abbott Government for the low climate targets that were announced on 11 August 2015.

Kelvin wrote on his blog on 13 August:

The Liberal Government’s announcement that it plans to reduce greenhouse emissions by 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 falls a long way short of what is needed to effectively tackle extreme weather events.

Its claim to be comparable with the United States is utterly misleading. The US plan is indeed for 26-28 per cent reductions, but by 2025, not 2030. How on earth can we claim to be going as fast as the United States when it will take us 5 years longer to get there?

Moreover the Liberal target is way short of the recommendation of Australia’s Climate Change Authority. The Climate Change Authority was charged with taking into account not only climate science and current and future climate change impacts, it was also tasked with examining what other countries are doing, and the economic and social impacts of climate action. Its investigation was comprehensive and its recommendations deserve to be treated with the utmost seriousness.

Read more at Kelvin Thomson’s blog.

Entry filed under: news, Policy. Tags: Abbott Government, climate targets, Kelvin Thomson, Tony Abbott.