Australia's plan to reduce carbon emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 has been described by Environment Minister Greg Hunt as "one of the world's leading" reduction targets.
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Responding to a major report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Mr Hunt conceded "we can all do more" to combat climate change but said the report vindicated the government's $2.5 billion Direct Action policy.
The IPCC has delivered its fifth report assembling the current state of scientific knowledge about climate change, ahead of next year's global summit to thrash out a new global carbon reduction agreement in Paris.
The IPCC says the world must stop its use of fossil fuels by 2100 if dangerous climate change is to be averted by preventing global warming of more than 2 degrees.
It also says renewables should make up 80 per cent of the world's energy by the middle of the century, which is nearly triple their current contribution of 30 per cent.
But Mr Hunt, who is negotiating with the opposition to reduce the compulsory Renewable Energy Target in Australia, refused to comment on the IPCC's recommendation.
"I won't be drawn on it either way, it's a fresh report," he told the ABC on Monday.
Asked if Australia needed to do more to contribute to global reductions of carbon emissions, Mr Hunt described the 5 per cent 2020 target as "one of the world's leading reductions".
"We are reducing our emissions on a basis that is very, very significant against business as usual - it's one of the world's leading reductions," he said.
"We can all do more," he conceded. "But we have to do this step by step, instead of big talk and just an electricity tax. I would rather have outcomes [and] achieve what we said we'd do," he said.
The 5 per cent reduction target is a bipartisan commitment, first set by Labor in government and matched by the then Coalition opposition.
Mr Hunt claimed the IPCC's report vindicated the government's Direct Action policy passed by the Senate last week, with the help of the Palmer United Party.
"It reaffirms precisely why we have taken the action we have," he said.
"What we have to focus on is reducing emissions and the best thing that we can do is clean up existing power stations," he said.
Mr Hunt said for him personally, the most important element of the report was its warning about the risks of the acidification of the oceans.
The opposition's climate spokesman Mark Butler said the report called for direct actions and not a "dressed up slush fund with a fancy name".
"What will it take for Tony Abbott to wake up and realise Australia must take meaningful action on climate change?" he said in a statement.
Greens leader Christine Milne said the world had to choose between coal and renewable energies and there was only one viable option
"The world cannot have coal and renewable energy – coal has to go," Senator Milne said in Hobart.
In February 2014, the Climate Change Authority warned that's Australia's five per cent target was "inadequate" and "not credible".
"It would leave an improbably large task for future Australians to make a fair contribution to global efforts," the CCA warned.
The CCA, chaired by former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser, was established by the former Labor government to advise on Australia's progress in keeping up with its reduction targets.
The Coalition wanted to abolish it but had to keep it as part of its negotiations with the PUP to pass Direct Action. It will review other countries carbon abatement mechanisms over the next few months but Mr Hunt has already said he will not listen to its advice if it recommends readopting emissions trading because the review is only a "gesture" to Clive Palmer.
John Connor from the Climate Institute said the CCA had recommended an increase in the target to 19 per cent and said Mr Hunt's assertion that 5 per cent was world leading was "simply not true".
"They're being fact checked by the very same agency they've thrown a lifeline to - the independent Climate Change Authority," he told Fairfax Media. He also said nothing in the report in any way vindicated Direct Action.
"That's a very creative and colourful interpretation of the report," he said.
Mr Connor said the report also discredited the government's push to bring down the Renewable Energy Target.
"With this report as a backdrop it's a nonsense to be winding back our RET," he said.
But Stephen Galilee from the Minerals Council said coal would still be required well into the future to supply the rising middle classes in India and China, who are demanding "cheap and reliable energy".
"The idea that you'll be able to withdraw fossil fuels from the energy mix over a relatively short period of time is one that really deserves serious investigation because it's going to cause significant social and economic dislocation," he told the ABC.
Mr Connor agreed that the world does have a "challenge in terms of energy access" but said "it's wrong to think that's a get-out-of-jail free card for our mining industries".
More to come
