Australia's opposition ditches commitment to net zero emissions

It has also pledged to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 percent from 2005 levels over the next decade and is campaigning to co-host next year's UN climate summit alongside Pacific Island neighbours -- some of the most climate-threatened nations in the world.

The opposition centre-right Liberal Party has agonised in recent weeks over whether to drop the net zero emissions pledge, introduced in 2021 by former leader Scott Morrison when he was prime minister.

Leader Sussan Ley said on Thursday that her party would drop the goal if it returned to office, capping weeks of internal debate.

She said it remained committed to "responding to climate change in a way that is affordable, responsible and achievable".

"Net zero would be welcome" but the target would have to be achieved without government intervention, Ley said.

"Energy affordability" would instead take precedence over government action to stop climate change, she said. 

The Liberals were roundly defeated in this year's federal elections by Albanese's Labor, sparking soul searching on how best to claw back power.

Ley's announcement came just days after the party's conservative coalition partners, the Nationals, voted to ditch its own net zero by 2050 target.

The two parties will meet on Sunday to determine their coalition's formal stance.

- 'Climate wars' redux -

Australia's "climate wars" -- a years-long domestic fight over emissions policy -- stalled progress and the country remains dependent on its fossil fuel economy for growth.

Albanese slammed the opposition on Thursday for "walking away from climate action".

"They're also walking away from reliable and affordable energy," he told reporters in Canberra.

Albanese's green ambitions remain at odds with Australia's deep entanglement with lucrative fossil fuel industries.

It is the world's second-largest coal exporter, holds the third-largest coal reserves and continues to channel billions of dollars in public subsidies into fossil fuels.

Iron ore, extracted through emissions-intensive mining, also remains its most valuable export.

Australia, with its vast flora and fauna, is considered highly vulnerable to climate change.

A landmark climate impact report released by the government in September warned that rising oceans and flooding caused by climate change will threaten the homes and livelihoods of more than a million Australians by 2050, while deaths from heat-related illness will soar.

James Hopeward at the University of South Australia said the Liberals' reversal was "a catastrophic failure to acknowledge both climate science and energy system dynamics".

"Crucially, the Liberal Party's policy retreat ignores a fundamental truth: the transition to renewable energy is inevitable," he said.

Australia already has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world -- almost 19,000 Australians were estimated to be diagnosed with melanoma in 2024, official health data shows.

Environmentalists fear Thursday's move by the Liberals would see them walk back any meaningful progress made in recent years should they get back into office.

Amanda McKenzie, chief executive of the Climate Council NGO, said ditching net zero would allow "climate change to rip". 

"It's deadly negligence that would leave Australians facing more fires, floods and heatwaves," she said. 

"You can't win elections by ignoring voters who want meaningful climate action."

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