SYDNEY, Australia (CU)_Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will lobby US President Joe Biden to set up a ” low-emissions technology partnership”, in a bid to align with the US President’s ambitious climate change plans.
Australia’s ambassador in Washington, Arthur Sinodinos, told ABC radio on Friday (Jan 22) that the US economy also faced challengers similar to that of Australia in its transition to a carbon-constrained world.
He added that the Australian government’s technology investment road map as well as the country’s expertise in solar and energy-efficient buildings would be common ground on which PM Morrison would seek to with the Biden administration.
“There’s a lot of expertise here that we want to bring to the table and work on these issues,” Sinodinos said.
“We find there’s a lot of commonality in our programs around investing in clean energy – the low-emissions technology road map that was published last year by the government in Australia – lines up with the sort of commitments to investing in clean energy the President is talking about in the case of the US.”
However, the Australian Prime Minister spent the past week in Queensland talking up the government’s planned “gas led” energy recovery, while also backing coal mines for decades to come.
Last month, President Biden’s top Asia adviser, Kurt Campbell, said he was concerned that Australia’s lack of significant commitment towards climate action could affect relations with the new US administration, owing to the importance the US President has attached to tackling emissions.
During his campaign, Biden pledged America to a net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050, and just hours after his Presidential inauguration, the President issued an executive order for the US to re-join the Paris climate agreement.
Australia, however, has not yet committed to the net-zero target, and PM Morrison says he would only be willing to do so if he could explain how that would be achieved and at what costs.
