Scott Morrison announces Climate Solutions Fund to reduce emissions

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is announcing a new climate change election policy that will see $2 billion allocated towards projects to reduce Australian emissions.

The policy is an extension of The Emissions Reduction Fund introduced by former prime minister Tony Abbott and is designed to ensure Australia meets its 2030 emission reduction target as set out in The Paris Agreement.

The program is designed to run for 10 years and supply money to local governments, farmers and businesses in order to fund projects like replacing refrigeration and lighting systems, revegetating land plus reducing the risk of bushfires.

He said that ā€œWe acknowledge and accept the challenge of addressing climate change, but we do so with cool heads, not just impassioned hearts,ā€

In spite of government projections creating doubt about Australiaā€™s ability to meet its 2030 target, the Prime Minister stressed otherwise.

Mr Morrison said that the Emission Reduction Fund had ā€œbeen an incredibly successful programā€, citing that it had supplied 193 million tonnes in reductions and that it was ā€œalways our intentionā€ to expand the policy ā€œto ensure we meet our 2030 targets, which we will.ā€

Some experts have expressed concern about whether or not the 2030 goal will be reached based on the counting of credits leftover from the prior Kyoto targets.

The Coalitionā€™s National Energy Guarantee was dropped shortly after Scott Morrison replaced Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister in a leadership spill.

Mark Butler, the Shadow Climate Change Minister, said that if Labor won the election it would scrap such a policy. He said that the Coalition was going to make taxpayers ā€œfoot the bill for something that big polluters should be doingā€.

Mr Butler questioned the Governmentā€™s sincerity in suddenly announcing a climate change policy so close to an election, saying that ā€œthe question really here is whether people would trust a Government that has spent five years trashing climate policyā€ and ā€œled by a Prime Minister who brought a lump of coal into the Parliament,ā€

Labor has announced its own reduction target of 45% by 2030. Mr Morrsion said that Laborā€™s policy was ā€œrecklessā€ and that it would ruin Australiaā€™s economy.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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