SYDNEY: Australia’s parliament has passed breakthrough climate laws hitting the nation’s worst polluters, requiring coal mines and oil refineries to curb emissions by about 5 per cent yearly.
The laws apply to 215 main industrial facilities, each producing more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually and forming the backbone of Australia’s pledge to reach net zero emissions by the year 2050.
The experts said the laws signalled the finish of Australia’s bitter “climate wars” – a decade of political brawling has repeatedly derailed attempts to tackle the country’s contribution to world warming.
With the latest legislation, the country’s centre-left Labor government has forecast it can stop 200 million tonnes of carbon from being pumped into the atmosphere over the next decade.
Climate wars
“What the parliament has done today is safeguard our climate, our economy, and our future,” Australia’s Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen told lawmakers.
“What the parliament has done today is brought an end to 10 years of dysfunction and 10 years of delay.”
‘We have a climate policy now’ Aluminium smelters, coal mines, oil refineries and other large polluters will be forced to reduce their emissions by 4.9% annually.
“It’s the first time greenhouse gas emissions cut has been written into Australian law,” said University of New South Wales sustainability expert Tommy Wiedmann. “That’s obviously a great thing. We’ve got a climate policy now.”
In the weeks ahead of a vote, the government struck the deal on the so-called Safeguard Mechanism after engaging in high-stakes bargaining with the left-wing Greens party.
Lastly, sceptical Greens, whose support was needed to pass the laws, agreed to back the carbon plan after advising the government to put a hard cap on emissions.
Adam Bandt, Greens leader, said the move compelled oil and gas corporations to slash their emissions “for the first time ever in law”.
