Sydney, March 30 (AFP/APP): Breakthrough climate laws passed by Australia on Thursday will target the nation’s worst polluters, forcing coal mines and oil refineries to curb emissions by about five percent each year.
Experts said the laws signalled the end of Australia’s bitter “climate wars” — a decade of political brawling that has repeatedly derailed attempts to tackle climate change.
“It’s the first time greenhouse gas emissions reduction has been written into Australian law,” University of New South Wales sustainability expert Tommy Wiedmann said.
“That’s obviously a good thing. We have a climate policy now,” he told AFP.
The laws apply to 215 major industrial facilities — each producing more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year — and form the backbone of Australia’s pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The government has forecast it can stop 200 million tonnes of carbon from being pumped into the atmosphere over the next decade.
Aluminium smelters, coal mines, oil refineries and other large polluters will be forced to cut their emissions by 4.9 percent each year.
The government struck a deal on the so-called Safeguard Mechanism after weeks of high-stakes bargaining with the left-wing Greens party.
The previously skeptical Greens — whose support was needed to pass the laws — agreed to back the carbon plan after persuading the government to put a hard cap on emissions.
Greens leader Adam Bandt said the move compelled oil and gas corporations to slash their emissions “for the first time ever in law”.
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