AUSTRALIA: The Australian Parliament held a conference on Tuesday (July 26) in Canberra for the first time since the Labor Party took control, vocalising people’s concerns about climate change amid ravaging bushfires, and floods and rising temperatures all around the globe.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that his party, which boasts a majority in the lower house, will introduce 18 new legislations, which include a climate change bill, vowing to cut back emissions by 43% by 2030.
This proposal was earlier rejected by the Liberal Party which was previously in power. As per the Minister of Climate and Energy, Chris Bowen, the government would make small phrasing changes, but already had mandates for its climate policy, according to Reuters.
The election witnessed the rising popularity of the Australian Greens who secured a record number of seats. For the measure to pass the upper house, the Labor Party requires the support of the Greens, who possess 12 Senate in addition to at least one independent.
However, the leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, noted that in his talks with the government, he discovered the 43% objective is a ‘modest’ plan, and that the Labor Party did so by keeping coal-fired power plants on the grid.
Post his meeting with the Greens, Bowen told the reporters, “There are things we have made more explicit in the bill that we will be introducing into Parliament, including how the Paris mechanism works to require future targets to be higher than previous targets,” according to Reuters.
In response to the Greens, the Labor Party commented that it is not entirely possible to eliminate all fuel emissions from coal and gas projects since coal became one of the most thriving export products in May, as prices rose sharply.
The government is set to update its economic forecasts to the parliament on July 28, considering higher interest rates and skyrocketing inflation.
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