Scott Morrison to use latest G20 remarks to advocate for climate policy ahead of Cop26 | australian politics

Scott Morrison will use his concluding remarks at the G20 summit in Rome to state that climate finance must focus on adaptation and “empowerment”, not just reducing emissions.

The Australian Prime Minister will also push back coordinated global efforts to phase out fossil fuels.

Morrison flies to Glasgow on Sunday evening to attend the United Nations-led Cop26 climate conference after two days in Rome at the G20 summit. In Scotland, countries will deliberate on a new target for international climate finance after 2025, including a role for private finance.

In his closing remarks to the G20, Morrison defended his government’s climate policies in the face of sustained national and international criticism.

As several G20 countries have pushed Australia to increase its ambitions in this decade, including the United States and the United Kingdom, host of Cop26, Morrison will tell his peers: “Australia has already reduced its emissions by more than 20% from 2005 levels, which is more than most of the countries sitting around this table ”.

He will also call for a change of mindset around climate finance. The existing Green Climate Fund (GCF) was created under the United Nations climate convention to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change and reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse.

Morrison withdrew Australia from the fund in 2018 in an interview with broadcaster Alan Jones. Subsequently, Australia funded projects in the Pacific region and, before Glasgow, the Morrison government reported more bilateral deals to pursue emerging technologies and an effort to set up a new framework in the Indo -Pacific for carbon offsets.

In his remarks Sunday, Morrison acknowledged that funding should go to reducing emissions but also to projects helping countries adapt to deal with the impacts of global warming. Funding should also go to the developing world agency, he said.

The Prime Minister said the response to the climate crisis was not offsetting developing countries, “or taxing them with tariffs, or making them settle for less, but focusing on science, technology solutions and engineering that can transform their economies and enable them to succeed, as the developed world has done ”.

Morrison said international climate agreements should embrace the transition process, rather than seek “abolition” – which refers to steps taken by several developed economies to reduce methane emissions and accelerate the phase-out of fuels. fossils, in line with what climate science says is necessary to prevent runaway global warming.

Sign up to receive the best stories from Guardian Australia every morning

He said Australia is investing heavily in developing new technology “to meet the goals that our own models show will move the dial and make a net zero economy possible – not just in Australia, but India, Indonesia. , Vietnam, Brazil and South Africa “.

Morrison said that a developing world-centric approach carries “risks of denial of the right to vote”. International climate agreements have never focused exclusively on the developing world, but have instead hinged around a principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, meaning that rich countries do more because they can allow it. Morrison said that any solution “that is aimed only at developed countries does not solve climate change.”

“Any solution that does not allow developing countries to industrialize and increase their incomes and standard of living in a new low-carbon energy economy, as part of our global response to climate change, also fails to solve the problem. climate change, ”Morrison said.

Morrison will tell his G20 peers that Australia’s investments in technology are focused on storage, sequestration, industrial processes and climate adaptation.

He said many technologies now exist, but he acknowledged that some of the methods preferred by Australia in its net zero strategy did not yet exist, “just as a Covid vaccine did not exist two years ago “.

While experts say the transition to carbon neutrality requires not only technological solutions to reduce emissions, but also clear goals, policies and mechanisms that enable price signals to facilitate effective investment during the transition, Morrison will say in Rome that “technology at cost and at scale is the answer. ”.

“Australia intends to play a major role in this area and in the supply chains necessary to stimulate the new energy economy, and we want to join forces with others who want to achieve the same,” said Morrison.

While the government’s political mantra for its climate policies is “technology, not taxes,” its preferred approach to managing the transition is funded by large taxpayer-funded spending.

Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor on Sunday acknowledged that the Coalition’s ‘tech-not-tax’ plan for Net Zero Emissions by 2050 could cost taxpayers far more than the 20 billion dollars already allocated.