Former finance minister Mathias Cormann, who once declared carbon taxes a "very expensive hoax", is using his role as the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to encourage countries to adopt more "stringent" carbon prices.
Key points:
- Mathias Cormann says the pricing of carbon emissions needs to be aligned globally
- Mr Cormann was part of the Abbott government, which repealed the Gillard government's carbon tax
- World leaders are gathering in Glasgow for the COP26 UN climate summit after the G20 nations meet in Rome
Mr Cormann, who quit the Australian parliament last year after serving as finance minister for seven years in the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, urged G20 leaders to better align their efforts to reach net zero by 2050.
"G20 economies are lifting their ambition and efforts, including through the explicit and implicit pricing of carbon emissions," Mr Cormann said in a statement.
"However, progress remains uneven across countries and sectors and is not well enough coordinated globally."
As Prime Minister Scott Morrison departed Australia bound for a meeting of the G20 in Rome, before heading to Glasgow for crucial UN climate talks, the OECD released a report making the case for carbon taxes and emissions trading systems to help countries meet climate objectives and support a "green recovery" from COVID-19.
"We need a globally more coherent approach which enables countries to lift their ambition and effort to the level required to meet global net zero by 2050, with every country carrying an appropriate and fair share of the burden while avoiding carbon leakage and trade distortions," Mr Cormann said.
"Carbon prices and equivalent measures need to become significantly more stringent, and globally better coordinated, to properly reflect the cost of emissions to the planet and put us on the path to genuinely meet the Paris Agreement climate goals."
Australia does not have an explicit carbon-pricing scheme and Mr Cormann was a senior member of the Abbott government which repealed the Gillard government's carbon tax in 2014.
In 2011, while in opposition, Mr Cormann argued the Gillard government's "push to put a price on carbon on the basis that it would help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions is a very expensive hoax".
Upon hearing of Mr Cormann's remarks during Senate Estimates, Labor Senator Tim Ayres said he had "defined his political career by stopping climate action in Australia".
"Are we certain that this is the same Mathias Cormann?" Senator Ayres quipped.
"Is this the same bloke?" he asked. "What on Earth is going on?"
Mr Morrison will attend the COP26 summit with a commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 after protracted internal negotiations with the Nationals.
World leaders attending the conference are being asked to lift their emissions reduction ambitions for this decade to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees within reach, however Mr Morrison is adamant his government will not adopt a steeper formal 2030 target.
Australia's existing 2030 target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 per cent below 2005 levels, although the government projects Australia is on track to hit 30-35 per cent within that timeframe.
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2021-10-28 12:21:13Z
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