Australia commits to cut carbon 15 per cent by 2020

Australia today pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions 15 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 in the event of an effective successor to the Kyoto Agreement being delivered next year.

The Australian government said the cuts would be delivered through its proposed carbon cap-and-trade scheme, which it claims will be the largest such scheme outside the EU when it comes into effect on 1 July, 2010.

However, it said that if global leaders fail to reach an agreement in Copenhagen next year on a successor to Kyoto Accord then the 15 per cent target will drop to just five per cent in an attempt to protect the international competitiveness of firms included in the scheme.

The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said the interim plan would not affect his long term commitment to slash carbon emissions by 60 per cent from 2000 levels by 2050 – a key component of his election campaign earlier this year.

"Australia is today the biggest carbon polluter in the developed world on a per capita basis," he said. "Yet we are the developed country with the most to lose from climate change."

He added that without national and international action to taackle climate change, "Australia faces a future of parched farms, bleached reefs and empty reservoirs".

The Australian Treasury expects the ETS permits to sell at around AU$25 ($17) per metric ton of carbon pollution, although the price will be set by market forces. The government will cap the permit price at AU$40 ($27) to ensure the cost for industry does not become too excessive.

All the proceeds from the permit sales will be ringfenced to help low-income households and carbon-intensive industries cope with higher energy bills and cut carbon emissions.

Given that at the start of the year Australia and the US were the only two developed nations that had refused to ratify Kyoto the new commitment could be seen as marking significant progress.

However, the targets fall short of the 25 to 40 per cent cuts by 2020 deemed necessary by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and also fail to match the 20 per cent cuts agreed by EU leaders last week.

Consequently, environmental groups slammed the targets as inadequate and accused the Rudd government of squandering the goodwill it has earnt for its decision to abandon the position held by the previous Howard government and ratify Kyoto.

Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry led the condemnation, claiming that "the weak targets announced today will damage Australia's international reputation and hold back progress towards an effective international agreement".

A spokesman for Greenpeace argued that the targets would also ensure that the disastrous environmental repercussions Rudd has warned of become a reality. The five per cent target condemns us to losing [Australian natural treasures] the Murray-Darling, the Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu National Park," he said.