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Nationals leader David Littleproud has today doubled down on his party’s decision, announced yesterday, to abandon its commitment to a net zero by 2050 climate target. The Nats’ new policy will instead focus on climate adaptation and mitigation of carbon emissions, Littleproud said yesterday. “We believe there’s a cheaper, better, fairer way to reduce emissions, to live up to international standards, and to try and make sure we take the pressure off Australians who are having trouble to pay their electricity bills. We’re seeing people losing their jobs. This net zero by 2050 will cost Australia $9 trillion putting at risk things like Medicare, NDIS… We should do the right thing, not just in mitigation of emissions, but also in terms of adaptation, making sure that we have a more resilient environment,” Littleproud told Nine’s Today show this morning. Pressed on whether he was frustrated by the Coalition’s indecision over net zero, Littleproud insisted that the party “respected” its Coalition partners’ process. “I think you’ve got to work from the premise of respect, and that’s what we work on. This isn’t about personality. This isn’t about Coalition. This is about good policy… rather than politics, and we just hope that this will feed into the process with our Coalition partners, and we’re doing that in a constructive way.” “It’s important that we just let each party work through their own processes,” Littleproud said.
