Submission: Climate Change Authority Issues Paper

Abstract

The Australian National University (ANU) Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions (ICEDS) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Climate Change Authority (CCA) Issues Paper on Targets, Pathways and Progress (IP). As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, Australia has committed to pursue efforts to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5o C above pre-industrial levels. The window of time to achieve this limited warming is closing quickly. ANU ICEDS recommends CCA aligns its ambition for reducing net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with Australia's commitment under the Paris Agreement. Australia must rapidly reduce its GHG emissions (often loosely termed decarbonisation) or risk exacerbating the already escalating climate change impacts that are being felt nationally and globally. Rapid decarbonisation should be a priority for Australia and is supported by the vast majority of Australians, with the CCA recommending ambitious targets that are aligned with the latest climate science. However, multiple climate hazards will unavoidably worsen under all reasonable trajectories of emission-reduction. Hence, ANU ICEDS recommends that all decarbonisation pathways put forward by the CCA are developed with attention to the climate impacts that must be endured by any new infrastructure, technology, workforce or market. Achieving an economy with emissions consistent with our Paris Agreement commitments will require a concerted effort from government at all levels, corporations, research and academia, the non-profit sector and the general public. While the CCA has thus far focused on the pathways for actors within each sector, there is an overlooked avenue to effect meaningful emissions reductions. Targeting the evolving consumer market for each sector through government intervention is a potentially powerful tool. Hence, ANU ICEDS recommends that CCA considers measures to reduce public appetite for emissions-intensive products, such as excessive consumption of foods with high embedded emissions and large petrol or diesel vehicles. ANU ICEDS members have also offered alternative modelling approaches that suggest the CCA has underestimated the impact of technological learning and improvement, which may indicate that the CCA can potentially increase the level of ambition surrounding the uptake of new technologies.