Australia gives in-principle support for net zero by 2050

Australia gives in-principle support for net zero by 2050

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Monday that a fifth National’s party minister will join his Cabinet as part of deal to cement the junior coalition partner’s support for a national target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.

The National party’s in-principle support for the target, which was decided on Sunday, is a breakthrough for Morrison, who wants to take a more ambitious plan to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions when he leaves on Thursday for a U.N. summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Nationals lawmakers would not discuss the conditions the party had placed on its support. Morrison’s Cabinet was considering the conditions.

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who is also deputy prime minister, declined to say whether the party had demanded that Resources Minister Keith Pitt be made the fifth Nationals’ Cabinet minister.

Morrison later said Pitt, who maintains Australia will continue mining coal for decades, will join his Cabinet.

Minister Pitt is a powerful voice for the resources sector and ensuring that we build upon Australia’s strength in traditional exports, while harnessing opportunities in the new energy economy and critical minerals, Morrison said in a statement.

Joyce also declined to confirm or deny that he had told his colleagues he opposed net zero.

We never would have had to go into the negotiation process if the Nationals were 100% happy with where the proposition was, Joyce said.

Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud said further details of the agreement would be made public by early Tuesday.

We worked through this calmly and rationally as a party, Littleproud said, adding that the Nationals’ amendments to the Cabinet proposal would protect jobs in rural Australia.

Reducing emissions is a politically fraught issue in Australia, which is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquified natural gas. The nation is also one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters per capita because of its heavy reliance on coal-fired power.