Clive Hamilton and David Karoly write in The Conversation (5.9.16) about their dissenting ‘minority’ report from the Climate Change Authority’s recent ‘majority’ report assessing Australia’s climate change policies. In light of news that China and the US have both ratified the Paris climate agreement, the authors argue that the CCA report does not sufficiently reflect that Australia needs to do more to meet its international climate obligations.
‘As Members of the Climate Change Authority who have participated fully in the Special Review of Australia’s Climate Goals and Policies, we reached the conclusion, after much consideration, that we could not in good conscience lend our names to its report, published last week.
‘Rather than resign from the Authority we decided to write a minority report. Here we present edited extracts from our report, which is released today.
‘The basis of our disagreement with the majority report is its failure to recognise the importance of the constraint put on all future emissions-reduction targets and policies by Australia’s carbon budget. The carbon budget is the total emissions that Australia can release between now and 2050 while still contributing its fair share in holding the global temperature rise to less than 2℃ – a key goal of the Paris climate agreement negotiated last December.
‘The majority report should, but does not, address the relationship between its recommendations and Australia’s carbon budget, consistent with a fair and equitable national contribution to the global carbon budget.’