Greens and Labor reach climate change agreement

After reaching a deal with the Greens, the federal government now has the support needed to implement the safeguard mechanism climate change agreement.

The safeguard mechanism agreement comes after months of negotiations, and is the centrepiece for Labor’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 43 per cent by 2030.

The Greens have long been urging Labor to take action in regard to climate change by switching to new coal and gas projects, but Labor has repeatedly ruled out these changes.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt said this deal includes a hard cap on emissions, which would make 116 new coal and gas projects unviable, as they would be unable to get their emissions below the limit.

“The Greens have stopped about half of them [in the pipeline] but Labor still wants to open the rest,” Mr Bandt said.

“And, so, now there is going to be a fight for every new project that the government wants to open.”

The safeguard mechanism bill aims to put emissions limits on the 215 largest polluting facilities in Australia. The bill is requiring those companies to cut, or pay offsets, in order to reduce their emissions sufficiently by 2030.

The government will be offering extra money to support “Australia’s sovereign capability” in the steel, aluminium, and cement sectors, as there had been worry that those sectors would be forced offshore without proper support to cut emissions.

Adam Bandt said that, while these negotiations with Labor have meant well, he was critical of the government’s view and approach to coal and gas.

“Negotiating with Labor is like negotiating with the political wing of the coal and gas corporations,” he said.

“Labor seems more afraid of the coal and gas corporations than the climate collapse.”

With support from the Greens, Labor now has the numbers needed to pass the safeguard mechanism bill through the Senate, which will allow it to take action from the 1^st of July.