Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n On Monday Ley promised the \u201ctechnology neutral\u201d approach would bring down power prices, repeating her claim that Labor\u2019s policies were to blame for higher energy bills.<\/p>\n \u201cPower prices will come down under us, because downward pressure will be put on power prices,\u201d she told 2GB.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I know people are going to ask me how much, but from where they will be when we get into government, if we\u2019re fortunate enough to be elected, you will see downward pressure from that point on.\u201d<\/p>\n Q&AWhat is net zero emissions?Show Net zero emissions is a target that has been adopted by governments, companies and other organisations to eliminate their contribution to the climate crisis. It is sometimes called \u201ccarbon neutrality\u201d.<\/p>\n The climate crisis is caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere, where they trap heat. They have already caused a significant increase in average global temperatures above pre-industrial levels recorded since the mid-20th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n Countries and others that set net zero emissions targets are pledging to stop their role in worsening this by cutting their climate pollution and balancing out whatever emissions remain by sucking an equivalent amount of CO2 out of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n This could happen through nature projects \u2013 tree planting, for example \u2013 or using carbon dioxide removal technology.<\/p>\n CO2 removal from the atmosphere is the \u201cnet\u201d part in net zero. Scientists say some emissions will be hard to stop and will need to be offset. But they also say net zero targets will be effective only if carbon removal is limited to offset \u201chard to abate\u201d emissions. Fossil use will still need to be dramatically reduced.<\/p>\n After signing the 2015 Paris agreement, the global community asked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess what would be necessary to give the world a chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C.<\/p>\n The IPCC found it would require deep cuts in global CO2 emissions: to about 45% below 2010 levels by 2030, and to net zero by about 2050.<\/p>\n The Climate Action Tracker has found more than 145 countries have set or are considering setting net zero emissions targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Photograph: Ashley Cooper pics\/www.alamy.com<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n The chief executive of the Clean Energy<\/a> Council, Jackie Trad, said abandoning a net zero emissions target \u201cwon\u2019t cut power bills or improve energy security\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt simply undermines Australia as a stable investment environment and frustrates the credible plan to replace the coal units that are already shutting down,\u201d said Trad, a former Queensland state Labor minister.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout that replacement, households, businesses and critical industries will face higher prices, more frequent outages and growing system instability.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, the Australian Energy Council released the findings of a survey of chief executives from leading energy retailers, generators and investors, which reaffirmed their support for net zero on the premise that the \u201cleast cost, lowest impact pathway is an energy system dominated by renewables and firmed by battery storage, gas and pumped hydro\u201d.<\/p>\n The council\u2019s chief executive, Louisa Kinnear, said renewable energy with \u201cfirming\u201d support would ultimately be cheaper than investing in existing or new coal-fired power, but the transition needed to be carefully managed.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Clear Air Australia<\/p>\n Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n McKellar, from ACCI, highlighted several issues with the opposition\u2019s plan, including the apparent contradiction with its position on the 2015 Paris agreement.<\/p>\n The Coalition insists it supports the Paris agreement, but its promise to tear up climate targets would be in breach of Australia\u2019s obligations under the pact.<\/p>\n \u201cTo characterise it at the moment, it seems to be a bit of a plan not to have a plan, unfortunately,\u201d McKellar told the ABC. \u201cSo I think a lot more detail is required.\u201d<\/p>\n The Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox, told the ABC\u2019s RN Breakfast his organisation needed \u201ca lot more detail\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom conversations with a range of people over the past week, it seems that they\u2019re opening their way back up to more coal into the system,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you were to go down that path, they take a long time to develop and there\u2019s been no investor appetite for new coal-fired powered stations now for a very long time because of the trajectory that we\u2019re on, and the pure economics of it.\u201d<\/p>\n He said industry had \u201cby and large signed up to\u201d net zero by 2050.<\/p>\n The Minerals Council of Australia\u2019s chief executive, Tania Constable, said the mining industry had \u201can ambition\u201d to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but that it was a \u201chuge challenge\u201d and \u201call technologies should be on the table\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business and energy industry leaders have warned the Coalition that abandoning a net zero emissions target will not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":385386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-385385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115565546106132196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763390172_892_5616.jpg\")
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