Australia resists demands tougher climate targets
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has resisted pressure to set more ambitious carbon emission targets while other major nations vowed deeper reductions to tackle climate change.
Addressing a worldwide climate summit, Mr Morrison said Australia was on a way to net zero emissions.
But he stopped short of setting a timeline, saying the united states would make it happen "as quickly as possible".
It came as the US, Canada and Japan set new commitments for steeper cuts.
US President Joe Biden, who chaired the virtual summit, pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by the entire year 2030. This new target essentially doubles the previous US promise.
By contrast, Australia will stick to its existing pledge of cutting carbon emissions by 26%-28% below 2005 levels, by 2030. That's in line with the Paris climate agreement, though Mr Morrison said Australia was on a pathway to net zero emissions.
"Our goal is to get there when we are able to, through technology that permits and transforms our industries, not taxes that remove them and the jobs and livelihoods they support and create," he told the summit.
"Future generations... will thank us not for what we have promised, but what we deliver."
Australia is among the world's biggest carbon emitters on a per capita basis. Mr Morrison, who has faced sustained criticism over climate policy, said action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would focus on technology.
The prime minister said Australia is deploying renewable energy 10 times faster compared to the global average per person, and has the highest uptake of rooftop solar panels in the world.
Mr Morrison added Australia would invest $20bn ($15.4bn; 11.1bn) "to accomplish ambitious goals which will bring the price tag on clean hydrogen, green steel, energy storage and carbon capture to commercial parity".
"You can always be sure that the commitments Australia makes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are bankable."
Australia has seen growing international pressure to intensify its efforts to cut emissions and tackle global warming. The united states has warmed normally by 1.4 degrees C since national records began in 1910, according to its science and weather agencies. That's resulted in an increase in the amount of extreme heat events, and increased fire danger days.
Prior to the summit, President Biden's team urged countries that contain been slow to embrace action on climate change to improve their ambition. While many nations heeded the decision, big emitters China and India also made no new commitments.
"Scientists tell us that may be the decisive decade - it is the decade we should make decisions which will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis," President Biden said at the summit's opening address.
Referring to America's new carbon-cutting pledge, President Biden added: "The signs are unmistakable, the science is undeniable, and the price tag on inaction keeps mounting."
