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Nationals leader David Littleproud is broadly expected to announce his party will scrap support for Australia’s net zero emissions by 2050 target when he emerges from a party room meeting on Sunday. While most in the junior Coalition partner do not back the climate pledge, dumping it would put the Nationals on a collision course with moderates in the Liberal Party who still support it. Amid conservatives’ concerns of another looming Coalition split, opposition environment spokeswoman Angie Bell on Sunday played down the stakes. “They have their process, and we are going through our process,” Ms Bell told Sky News. “We’ll come to our position in due course.” Asked if the Liberals could follow suit and dump support for net zero, the moderate from Queensland said all options were on the table, in line with Sussan Ley’s vision of a wholesale post-election policy review. “I’m not ruling anything out at this point in time, because what we need to be is united on one page when it comes to moving forward with our energy policy,” she said. The Coalition committed Australia to net zero by 2050 in 2021. It was a fractious issue then, with former prime minister Scott Morrison and his deputy Barnaby Joyce bashing out an agreement. More to come.
