On the occasion of the Albanese government’s climate bill passing the Senate, the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Climate Program Manager Gavan McFadzean said:
“It is heartening to see Australia’s legislators finally taking the climate crisis seriously.
“For too long Australia has been a laggard and a laughing stock. This is no longer the case.
“ACF commends parliamentarians – in the House of Representatives and the Senate – who have strengthened this bill on its passage through the parliament.
“Amendments to this legislation, introduced by Senator David Pocock and supported by a majority of Senators, have improved the transparency of this bill.
“It’s good to see parliamentarians working together for stronger action on climate change.
“While the climate science makes it clear a 43% cut to emissions by 2030 is not enough to avoid dangerous global warming, it is an improvement on the previous government’s 26–28% target and it provides a framework for further climate action.
“ACF urges the government to move quickly to turn the safeguard mechanism from a broken tool into an effective scheme to cut emissions from the nation’s major polluters.
“Emissions limits for facilities covered by the mechanism should be ambitious and ratchet down in a predictable way.
“A predictable phase down will give industry incentives to come up with innovative energy saving solutions to run their businesses more cleanly and efficiently.
“There is no room for new coal and gas projects, which add to the world’s climate problem.”
