Greens leader attacks business lobby modelling on emission cuts, vows to “get shit done” on climate

New Greens leader Larissa Waters has launched a withering attack on the main Australian business lobby over its modelling for the country’s emission reduction targets, and promised to put pressure on Labor to aim for a strong climate action.

Waters’ comments, in her first major speech to the renewable energy industry since taking over as leader of the Australian Greens in May, follow the release of modelling from the Business Council of Australia last week which counted more than half a trillion dollar in costs, but not a single dollar in benefits, from a range of 2035 targets.

“We literally can’t afford to ignore the climate crisis,” Waters said, as the Labor government prepares to announce its 2035 emissions reduction target following the receipt of advice from the Climate Change Authority.

The CCA is expected to deliver a range of options, or an optional range, and has openly canvassed 65 to 75 per cent emission reduction cuts for 2035, below 2005 levels.

Environmental groups, including the Greens, argue that Australia must aim for net zero by 2035, instead of 2050, to keep in line with efforts to cap global warming below 2°C.

Business lobbies, such as the BCA, largely dominated by corporates with deep fossil fuel interests, are pushing for weaker targets below 60 per cent, although one informal group of 350 businesses led by Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals has pushed for a minimum target of a 75 per cent cut in emissions by 2035.

The Fortescue-led group released modelling by Deloitte that showed Australia’s GDP would be $370 billion better off by 2035 with a 75 per cent emissions reduction target, compared to a weaker target of 65 per cent, and found it would create an estimated 69,000 jobs in renewable industries.

“The thing to know about targets is that they are a zero sum game. Someone wins and someone loses,” Waters says, according to a copy of her speech released before her appearance at the Smart Energy Council summit in Brisbane on Tuesday.

“With a high Australian target, we all win with a safe climate and new economic opportunities open up. Your clean businesses win, your customers win and your suppliers win. Coal and gas exporters lose.

“With a low Australian target, international coal and gas corporations win, their profits go up while Australians are the ones who have to  pay for it in insurance premium increases, in cleaning up after floods and cyclones and in lost profits for farmers and more expensive food for us.”

Waters attacked companies such as oil and gas giant Woodside, but her principal message was for Labor, which won a thumping majority in the lower house in the last election, but has to deal with the Greens and other independents (or the Coalition) in the Senate.

“The Greens have made it crystal clear to the Labor government that we are in parliament to get shit done,” Waters said. “Especially when it comes to climate and clean energy. And that choice of progressive or regressive pathways in the parliament is more important now than ever.

“Now obviously, being the Greens, we’re going to follow the climate science,” Water said.

“And the science says to maintain global temperatures below 2 degrees we need to be at Net Zero by 2035, putting us at the forefront of a swiftly decarbonising world. Strong economy, clean renewable energy, reduced emissions.
Seems pretty straightforward to me.”

Waters speech comes a day after the appointment of the former Greens leader Adam Bandt to be the new CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation, which is also pushing for a net zero target by 2035.

Waters said The Greens would continue to push for a “solar for renters” program, which could borrow on idea from some local councils and use funds provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation or via a government owned utility like Snowy Hydro to install solar on the rooftops of rental properties.

“Our policy would give renters a right to request an average-sized solar panel system to be installed at their rental properties,” she said.

“Landlords wouldn’t have to pay up front and tenants get to save thousands of dollars a year. This policy deals with the thorny issue of split incentives between landlords and tenants that, to be brutally honest, no policy in the country has yet been able to overcome.

“Seven million renters can’t enjoy the benefits of solar power and storage. This policy would unlock 3 million homes that your business otherwise can’t access.”

Waters also argued against applying a “road user charge” only to electric cars and electric trucks, as has been canvassed by treasurer Jim Chalmers.

“Based on the Treasurer’s words to date, he seems fine to tax EV drivers and electric trucks while companies like BHP continue to enjoy half a billion dollars in completely tax free fuel.

“The Greens want to see tax settings that get petrol cars off the road and see people take up all kinds of electric transport – public transport, e-transport and electric vehicles.

“The worst thing we could do as a country, for our productivity and safe climate future, is throw barriers in the way of this critical transition.”

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