Submission to the Climate Change Authority Consultation
In June 2023, The Climate Change Authority invited submissions on its issues paper “Setting, tracking and achieving Australia’s emissions reduction targets”. The paper sets out 31 questions across a wide range of issues to inform the CCA’s approach to:
providing advice on Australia’ s 2035 national emissions target;
providing advice for the Minister for Climate Change and Energy’s Annual Climate Change Statement
Review of the Carbon Credits (carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011
Review of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (NGER Review)
ASFI’s submission to this consultation focusses on aspects of the Issues Paper that are especially significant for the finance sector: Australia’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), national sector decarbonisation pathways, and the review of the National Greenhouse Emissions Reporting Scheme (NGERS). It makes the following key recommendations:
Australia’s 2035 NDC should be consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, supporting the allocation of capital for the transition and positioning Australia to capture the significant opportunities from global decarbonisation.
ASFI supports development by the CCA of independent, science-based, national sector decarbonisation scenarios for 1.5 degrees and “well below 2” degrees. Scenarios should be down-scaled from credible global decarbonisation scenarios and fit for purpose to the Australian context.
NGERS should be updated to become Australia’s comprehensive ‘one-stop shop’ for emissions reporting, consistent with contemporary stakeholder needs for reliable corporate emissions data. This will require substantial changes to NGERS reporting obligations, the systems that underpin them, and the publication and accessibility of emissions data.
Read our full submission here.