Targets and Trajectories - what do we do?
The Targets and Trajectories report released by Professor Ross Garnaut says Australia should put its strongest possible efforts into securing a global agreement to limit emissions to no more than 550 parts per million CO2-e and encourage the world onto a lower emissions path as soon as feasible.
The supplementary draft report finds that, based on this objective to limit CO2 emissions, Australia should reduce emissions by 10 per cent (or 30 per cent in per capita terms) by 2020 and an 80 per cent reduction (90 per cent per capita) by 2050 over 2000 levels. This is a reduction of 17 per cent (27 per cent per capita) from the levels that are expected in 2012, at the end of the Kyoto period. A binding international commitment to the 2020 outcome would be made within the context of, and conditional on, an effective global agreement that is designed to stabilise global concentrations of greenhouse gases at 550ppm by mid-century.
Analysis suggests that the price would settle in the mid-$20 range in 2013, and rise at an annual rate of 4 per cent plus the increase in the general price level. If this were the outcome, there would be a smooth transition from the fixed permit prices of the transition period, to the floating price.
The report proposes that, in the absence of an international agreement between high-income countries and China, Australia commit to an emissions reduction target of 5 per cent by 2020 (25 per cent per capita), which is in line with the Government’s 60 per cent by 2050 emissions target. Any further commitments would be determined in the context of international progress.
Garnaut’s latest report has thrown more fuel on the climate change debate, with controversy coming from all side. Environmentalists think Garnaut’s gone in way too soft, and many scientists saying he’s has got it wrong.
See the Supplementary Draft Report - Garnaut Climate Change Review here or here.
