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Scott Morrison pitches climate plan in late night interview

Courtney GouldNCA NewsWire
Scott Morrison has used a late-night interview to pitch his recently unveiled climate plan. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Camera IconScott Morrison has used a late-night interview to pitch his recently unveiled climate plan. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia

Scott Morrison has used a late-night interview to pitch his newly-released climate plan, rejecting concerns the government has broken a promise not to increase climate targets.

Mr Morrison on Tuesday outlined his plan to reach net zero ahead of his trip to a major UN climate summit in Glasgow. Under the plan, more than $20 billion will be invested in low emissions technologies including carbon capture and storage.

The Prime Minister also unveiled new projections, which if reached, could see Australia reduce emissions by 30 to 35 per cent by 2030.

Speaking with Sky News, the Prime Minister declared “nothing has changed” and insisted the shift towards a carbon neutral future was consistent with his rhetoric at the 2019 election.

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“Well in 2019 there was two plans. There was Bill Shorten’s plan which he said he wanted to reduce emissions by 2030 by 45 per cent and there was our plan to reduce it by 26 to 28 per cent, ” Mr Morrison said.

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Camera IconThe Prime Minister has denied the new climate targets should worry voters. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia

“Now that's what we’ve gone ahead with. The 45 per cent plan was rejected.”

Seeking to assure voters, Mr Morrison insisted the government had not backflipped on previous proposals and the and the last election was decided on 2030 targets, not net zero.

“Nothing has changed at all,” he declared.

“There was no discussion of net zero by 2050 at the last election. That wasn't the debate … It was a choice between those two 2030 plans.”

Mr Morrison said he couldn’t shield the country from climate change – or the global fallout from perceived policy inaction.

“I said I would only ever contemplate (net zero) if we had a plan that enabled us to achieve it,” he said.

“We can't just pretend these things aren’t going to happen from overseas. These things are occurring.

“And as Prime Minister I need to protect Australia from those impacts, decisions being made in other parts of the world, gonna have an impact here.

“Our plan helps us both protect Australians from that and realise the opportunities so we can succeed as we have all along.”

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Camera IconMr Morrison declared Australia would remain committed to mining as long as the market was there. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia

Addressing the concerns of the “quiet Australians”, Mr Morrison vowed Australia would keep mining and farming.

“We‘re not asking anything to be closed down. We’re going to keep digging, we’re going to keep mining, we’re going to keep farming,” he told Sky News.

“We’re going to keep doing all of these things, and nothing in our plan is about shutting any of those things down.”

Earlier, Mr Morrison dismissed comments he had been forced to this position by the United States and the United Kingdom.

He also denied the signing of the AUKUS agreement was contingent on adopting more robust climate targets.

“We decide what our policy is here, and this is in Australia‘s interest to do this,” he told 6PR.

“That said, of course, they have some strong views on this but their plans are different to ours, they're going down a different path.”

On nuclear power, Mr Morrison told Sky News he would not subject Australians to the debate, considering it did not have bipartisan support.

“Right now there's a moratorium on nuclear (energy) here in Australia and the Labor Party are totally opposed. And I’m just not going to put Australia through the argument,” he said.

Originally published as Scott Morrison pitches climate plan in late night interview

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