Australian
Prime Minister Abandons Climate Targets, Bowing to Party Pressure
20
August, 2018
SYDNEY,
Australia — Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of Australia abandoned
plans for emission targets Monday, bowing to pressure from
conservatives who considered toppling Mr. Turnbull’s government
over an energy policy that aimed to reduce prices and bring the
country into line with international climate change commitments.
Mr.
Turnbull, who looked tired after a weekend of negotiating with
colleagues, told reporters Monday morning that the energy policy
bill, known as the National Energy Guarantee, would not be introduced
in the House of Representatives because there was not enough support.
“We
are not going to propose legislation purely for the purpose of it
being defeated,” he said.
Critics
immediately called that claim inaccurate, noting the proposal had
support from other parties. But whatever its chances, the defeat
spurred intense speculation about Mr. Turnbull’s future and
frustration among those increasingly worried about Australia’s
vulnerability to climate change and its effects, from extreme drought
to bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef.
“All
it does is reconfirm that they have no interest in doing anything
about climate change or the Great Barrier Reef really,” said Jon
Brodie, a well-known coral reef scientist at James Cook University.
The
energy plan’s climate change element — a commitment to reduce
energy emission levels in 2030 to 26 percent below the levels
recorded in 2005 — was not wildly ambitious. It matched the target
Australia set for the entire country in the Paris climate agreement,
meaning that agriculture and other industries would still have to do
more to meet the nation’s commitments under the deal.
The
energy guarantee was at least the third attempt by Mr. Turnbull to
devise an energy policy that included a path toward reducing
emissions. Its failure showed that at least for now, the science of
global climate change has again been pushed aside by the relentless
scrum for power in Canberra.
[Read
More: What was the National Energy Guarantee in the first place? A
“NEG” explainer.]
Mr.
Turnbull has been battling accusations of weak leadership ever since
he toppled Tony Abbott in a 2015 leadership challenge. But with
recent polls suggesting the opposition Labor party would win an
election if it were held today, he has become increasingly
vulnerable.
Zareh
Ghazarian, a lecturer in the School of Political and Social Inquiry
at Monash University, said that many lawmakers in Mr. Turnbull’s
party — which holds only a one-seat majority in the House of
Representatives — fear defeat in the election expected to be called
between now and next year.
The
lawmakers see electricity prices as an important campaign issue and
they are eager, he said, for something that will address voter
discontent and indifference.
“There
is a concern that the overall message of the government is not being
listened to,” Mr. Ghazarian said. “There is a sense that no one
is really listening to Malcolm Turnbull.”
Whether
Mr. Turnbull is toppled or not, the internal frustration plays into
well-established feuds and volatility.
Neither
Mr. Abbott nor other conservatives in the party have every fully
accepted Mr. Turnbull, a cosmopolitan former investment banker whose
policy achievements include legislation legalizing same-sex marriage.
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