Net-zero delusion

Vanity CO2 targets and 29 COP gatherings have failed to stop the rise in global emissions

The average cruising speed of a Boeing 737-700 is 828 km/h, no matter which end one flies in. So it was hard not to feel some sympathy for the Prime Minister when he was badgered to explain why he wouldn't be attending the COP 27 climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022.

“I can’t be in all places at once,” Anthony Albanese told journalists. “It’s as simple as that.”

The spatiotemporal limitations that apply to every prime minister hadn't stopped Albanese from calling Scott Morrison "weak" a year earlier when he initially decided not to attend COP 26 in Glasgow.

"He should represent Australia,” Albanese said. “If he doesn't, that's because he's embarrassed about Australia's position."

As it turned out, Morrison changed his mind and attended the Glasgow conference, only to be further mocked by Albanese for failing to increase Australia's 2030 target.

For the record, Albanese didn't turn up at COP 27 in Dubai and he has not shown his face at COP 28 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which draws to a close at the end of this week.

Could it be embarrassment that is keeping Albanese away? Indeed, he has reason to feel sheepish, judging from the latest quarterly National Greenhouse Accounts published by the Department of Climate Change and Energy.

Australia’s annual CO2 emissions have flatlined under Labor. The country was responsible for 438 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in the year to June 2022, a 28 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions. Emissions in the year to June 2024 totalled 440 million tonnes.

So, despite Labor's bragging and despite all the pain, it has yet to make a gram of progress towards reaching its target of a 35 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. Energy prices have rocketed, thousands of hectares of remnant vegetation have been despoiled, the ugly stick has hit landscapes, and farmers have been trussed with green tape. Yet there has been zero progress towards zero net emissions in mere 26 years.

The government might trot out excuses like the post-Covid boost to the economy or the self-inflicted surge in immigration. The underlying explanation, however, is that reducing carbon in the atmosphere is extraordinarily difficult. Setting targets is one thing, achieving them quite another.

The electricity sector was responsible for 39.8 million tonnes of emissions in the March quarter of 2022 under Angus Taylor's watch. In the March quarter this year under Chris Bowen, the total was 39.2 million, a fall of a miserly 1.5 per cent.

We can safely say that Labor’s 2030 target of an 82 per cent carbon-free electricity grid will not be met. Neither will it hit its overall emissions