After ten years of denial, the Australian government has finally reached a climate agreement that will force the country’s biggest polluters to reduce their emissions. Australia’s 215 most polluting facilities, such as coal mines and gas-fired power stations, will have to reduce their net emissions by almost 5% per year until 2030. This landmark agreement, which will apply from 1 July this year, is a major step forward in the fight against climate change in Australia.
Fossil fuels and mining are the backbone of the Australian economy, which has made attempts to reduce carbon pollution difficult in recent years. However, the centre-left government reached a decisive agreement after several weeks of tense negotiations with the Green Party. The Greens, whose support is needed to get the text through the Senate in the face of conservative opposition, agreed to support the plan after convincing the government to set a strict cap on emissions. Companies will therefore have to reduce their pollution levels every year.
Australia is committed to reducing its emissions by 43 percent by the end of 2030, removing some 200 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, the government predicts. David Schlosberg, director of the Sydney Environment Institute, says the plan is “better than the policy of inaction Australia has had for more than a decade,” but it is only “a start.
However, the Australian mining industry has warned that the new policy could result in massive job losses. Global mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP, operators in Australia, will be forced to comply.
Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and, as a result, one of the world’s biggest laggards in climate advocacy. For more than a decade, political wrangling has stalled attempts to reduce emissions. But a series of severe natural disasters has helped convince leaders to take the climate emergency seriously, including the catastrophic floods of 2022 on Australia’s east coast and the “black summer” fires of 2019-2020, which burned more than eight million hectares of vegetation.
Albanese’s Labour government came to power last year on a promise to break with the fossil fuel-friendly policies of the previous Conservative government. The adopted text should be submitted to Parliament this week and enter into force on July 1. While some environmental advocates said the reductions were too small, Monday’s agreement marks a significant turning point in Australia’s climate policy.
