\n<\/p>\n
The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has indicated the Coalition won\u2019t set a 2030 or 2035 climate target unless they return to government, saying her colleagues didn\u2019t back locking in an emissions goal while they remained in opposition.<\/p>\n
It came as Ley had to clean up her own error, claiming she \u201cmisspoke\u201d after initially saying her party \u201cdon\u2019t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government\u201d. She later clarified she only meant in opposition, prompting ridicule from Anthony Albanese who claimed the opposition \u201cchanges its policies from hour to hour\u201d.<\/p>\n
Albanese declined to guarantee whether power prices would fall under the government\u2019s goal to reduce Australia\u2019s emissions by between 62 and 70%, based on 2005 levels, by 2035. Energy minister Chris Bowen said projections of $1,000 a year in power price savings were only modelling, and \u201cnot a political promise\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Labor opts for political solution to emissions reduction with Oprah-style target \u2013 video<\/span><\/p>\n The 62-70% goal prompted cautious support from business groups, but criticism from climate groups who said it fell short of what Australia should be doing to combat global heating.<\/p>\n Ley and the Coalition also immediately denounced the target as \u201ceconomy-wrecking\u201d, the opposition leader saying she was \u201cdead against\u201d the plan but not nominating an alternate target.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/p>\n The Coalition remains committed at this stage to the net zero by 2050 pledge made by former PM Scott Morrison. Ley is under pressure from conservatives to dump the net zero pledge, including leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie and Nationals MPs.<\/p>\n Asked on Friday at a press conference what alternate target the Coalition would nominate, Ley initially gave an answer she later said was in error.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t believe in setting targets at all from opposition or from government because the reality is that energy policy is not about a target that is never going to be reached and the 43% target is a perfect example of that,\u201d she said, referencing Labor\u2019s 2030 goal.<\/p>\n Ley chided the government for \u201csetting a notional target and then expecting that everyone will agree with it, even though you can\u2019t demonstrate how you will get there or what it will cost.\u201d She claimed \u201cthe cost question is not answered at all.\u201d<\/p>\n But after she concluded her press conference, Ley quickly returned to the assembled cameras to claim she \u201cjust misspoke in the answer I gave to you, on targets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I meant to say was that I don\u2019t support the targets that the government sets while we\u2019re in opposition, so I misspoke. We don\u2019t support setting targets in opposition. We do, of course, recognise the importance of targets in government when we have the full information in front of us, which we don\u2019t have now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Labor set its 2030 target of 43% in 2021, while in opposition.<\/p>\n In a subsequent press conference on Friday, Albanese was scathing of Ley\u2019s gaffe about not setting targets. He claimed it was \u201cessentially the announcement of withdrawal\u201d from the Paris climate agreement \u2013 an allegation Coalition sources strongly denied.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this statement, what it said was a lot about the modern Liberal Party. They\u2019re focused on their own jobs and fighting each other,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, has indicated the Coalition won\u2019t set a 2030 or 2035 climate target unless they return to government, saying her colleagues didn\u2019t back locking in an emissions goal while they remained in opposition. It came as Ley had to clean up her own error, claiming she \u201cmisspoke\u201d after initially saying her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[186,1772,12590,3037,13745,13746,1228,13744,1415],"class_list":{"0":"post-22400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate","9":"tag-coalition","10":"tag-comments","11":"tag-doesnt","12":"tag-ley","13":"tag-misspoke","14":"tag-setting","15":"tag-sussan","16":"tag-targets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}