There you go, Joe: Albo to give Biden the first look at Australia’s new climate plan
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will lay out Australia’s climate plans in a speech to a forum being organised by US President Joe Biden.
Joe Biden will be spending plenty of time with Prime Minister Scott Morrison this weekend. (Photo: ABC)
Biden will on Friday night, and into Saturday morning AEST, host a virtual leader-level meeting of what is known as the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate.
Premiers and chief ministers at a meeting of the national cabinet in Canberra voiced their shared commitment to Australia’s new emissions target, which has been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The federal government signed off on a new commitment on Thursday, to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent to below 2004 levels by 2030.
“I will be a speaker at the forum being convened by President Biden where we will be further announcing our program of the new commitment that we’ve submitted to the UNFCCC,” Albanese told reporters.
The meeting is part of the US president’s efforts to urge more ambitious climate action.
It involves countries representing 80 per cent of global GDP, population, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Meanwhile, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen told a forum good climate policy was also good economic policy.
“As we get on with unleashing investment, we will show that the world’s climate emergency is indeed Australia’s jobs opportunity,” he told the Climate Change Investment and Finance Summit.
He said the government would seek to use Australia’s solar and wind resources, as well as skilled workforce and energy storage space, in order to become a clean energy export superpower.
“Australia is under new management and Australia is open for business in the new global economy,” he said.
David Scaysbrook, co-founder and managing director of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, told AAP it was the “clarion call to action we have all been waiting for”.
“Rather than being held hostage by the industry of yesterday, we must urgently move to create the industry of tomorrow and that’s where this government wants to take us,” he said.
“Lead on and all that new investment, jobs creation and decarbonisation we hope for will come speeding towards us.
“This is what climate leadership looks like.”
