TRANSCRIPT
It was one of the first moves by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after Labor's 2022 election win - legislating an ambitious emissions reduction target for the end of the decade.
When announcing the target, Mr Albanese said it was carefully selected.
"What we didn't do was set a target and then work out how to get there. What we did was work out what good policy looked like, and it happened to come out with a 43 per cent target by 2030."
Two years into the eight year plan, modelling shows Australia is short of that target, expected to achieve a 42 per cent reduction by the end of the decade.
For most people, not much seems to have changed - there's no big shift in everyday life towards a greener country.
Chief Executive of the Climate Council, Amanda McKenzie, says it's not surprising the change isn't noticeable.
"You turn on light, you don't necessarily know where the electricity is coming from. So you won't necessarily see a shift in everyday life, although you will be having more panels on roofs, so you will be sourcing your own electricity. So people will be more aware of the electricity that they're generating at home. There'll be also more batteries, for instance, community batteries, household batteries, that will see more in the community. But we'll also be seeing wind farms, when we're driving through the countryside."
So, what's actually being done to reach that target?
The Climate Change Authority provides advice to the Australian Government on climate change policy, and tracks the country's emission reductions.
Chief Executive of the authority, Brad Archer, says the most of the reductions have been achieved in the energy space.
"We've seen quite a broad agenda implemented by the current federal government. First and foremost, the 82% renewables target, so shifting our electricity generation from fossil fuel based generation to solar and wind, and ensuring we've got the energy storage and transmission networks and everything that needs to go along with that. And it has a measure called the capacity investment scheme, which is designed to push that along."
Emissions reductions are tracked in six areas - energy, industry and resources, transport, agriculture, waste, and land.
In the last financial year, emissions were only reduced in the energy space, with overall emissions up by one percent.
Mr Archer says the 2030 target is still achievable despite the increase.
"Certainly it's not in the right direction, it was a small increase. Now. That is only one year's outcome. And you know, there'll be varying influences on emissions from year to year that might give a result like that, but certainly not in keeping with the fact that we need a strong downwards trend year after year, if we are to achieve the targets that we want to achieve."
Mark Howden is Director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University.
He says other areas need more attention for Australia to reach its target.
"One of the challenges at the moment is that most of the attention is paid to the electricity sector. What we need to do is not just focus on the electricity sector, which gets most of the attention, but that's only 30 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions, we need to focus on the other 70 per cent."
In the last financial year, transport emissions increased by 8 per cent.
The government has legislated a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard - requiring car companies to obey a fuel efficiency budget and balance sales of dirtier, fuel-hungry cars against low or zero-emission vehicles.
Ms McKenzie says Australians will have to reconsider how they travel to further reduce transport emissions.
"We've just seen the government pass the new vehicle efficiency standards, which is about getting our pollution down in passenger vehicles. But there's more to do in how we transport ourselves. So more public transport shared and active transport options for Australia to shift the way that they do things so we're not always reliant on the passenger vehicle."
Light vehicles, which are covered by the fuel efficiency standards, are responsible for 59 per cent of transport emissions.
The other 41 per cent comes from things like buses, trains, trucks, and aeroplanes.
Mr Archer says emerging technologies will play a part in reducing those emissions.
"It's likely that we're going to need a mix of solutions to address emissions from those transport modes. I think batteries, you know, can play a role in some heavy vehicles, but probably not all of them. In which case, we're then looking at developing alternative emissions fuels, which could be some form of biofuels, bio diesel for example, and possibly hydrogen is another example of an emerging fuel which could be used in heavy vehicles, similarly could be used in rail."
Mr Archer says there are ways to reduce emissions from waste.
"Organic matter in particular that is dumped into landfill over time releases methane primarily into the atmosphere. A couple of things that we can do is simply divert, particularly organic waste, from landfill to other forms of processing, which will reduce emissions, and simply reducing the amount of waste that we have, and you know, generating food and using food more efficiently, less waste, less emissions."
Most of the emissions in the agricultural sector come from livestock, with more than 100 million sheep and cattle on Australian farms at any given time.
Mr Archer says there are ways to minimise livestock emissions whilst keeping the industry in Australia.
"Agriculture is definitely a challenging area, but we do have some prospect for reducing emissions in that sector. So there are a few things that farmers can do differently. Some of that relates to what they feed their livestock, and there is a technology based around a feed that derives from seaweed which has shown to prove effective in some cases, and then there's ways we can manage the livestock on the land, in terms of herd management and things like that."
Part of the plan to net zero includes ways to capture carbon, including reducing land clearing and planting trees.
Ms McKenzie says carbon capture shouldn't offset fossil fuels.
"What's really important is that offsets are not used against fossil fuels, because fossil fuels are always making the climate situation worse. So what we argue is offsets should be used in a closed loop with agriculture."
Dr Howden says to achieve the emissions reduction target, there needs to be certainty.
"One of the biggest issues here is uncertainty and confusion and polarising views. And the uncertainty is critical. Because if you've got an uncertain situation, businesses and others are unlikely to invest their monetary or other capital, in the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
