Submission: Climate Change Authority Issues Paper

The Australian National University (ANU) Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions
(ICEDS) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Climate Change Authority (CCA) Issues
Paper on Targets, Pathways and Progress (IP).
As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, Australia has committed to pursue efforts to limit the
global average temperature increase to 1.5o
C above pre-industrial levels. The window of time to
achieve this limited warming is closing quickly. ANU ICEDS recommends CCA aligns its ambition
for reducing net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with Australia's commitment under the Paris
Agreement. Australia must rapidly reduce its GHG emissions (often loosely termed
decarbonisation) or risk exacerbating the already escalating climate change impacts that are
being felt nationally and globally.
Rapid decarbonisation should be a priority for Australia and is supported by the vast majority of
Australians, with the CCA recommending ambitious targets that are aligned with the latest
climate science. However, multiple climate hazards will unavoidably worsen under all
reasonable trajectories of emission-reduction. Hence, ANU ICEDS recommends that all
decarbonisation pathways put forward by the CCA are developed with attention to the climate
impacts that must be endured by any new infrastructure, technology, workforce or market.
Achieving an economy with emissions consistent with our Paris Agreement commitments will
require a concerted effort from government at all levels, corporations, research and academia,
the non-profit sector and the general public. While the CCA has thus far focused on the
pathways for actors within each sector, there is an overlooked avenue to effect meaningful
emissions reductions. Targeting the evolving consumer market for each sector through
government intervention is a potentially powerful tool. Hence, ANU ICEDS recommends that CCA
considers measures to reduce public appetite for emissions-intensive products, such as excessive
consumption of foods with high embedded emissions and large petrol or diesel vehicles.
ANU ICEDS members have also offered alternative modelling approaches that suggest the CCA
has underestimated the impact of technological learning and improvement, which may indicate
that the CCA can potentially increase the level of ambition surrounding the uptake of new
technologies.