The Liberal Party looks set to dump its pledge to guide Australia to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but is still a day away from officially announcing its energy policy following a mammoth meeting in Canberra today.
In a five-hour meeting at Parliament House, MPs debated what to do with the emissions reduction target set by Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison in 2021.
After a majority of members called for net zero to be scrapped, the party will announce its formal policy following a shadow cabinet meeting tomorrow morning.
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"The shadow ministry will meet tomorrow to finalise our position but it was an excellent meeting and terrific to hear from all of my colleagues," Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said.
Following the meeting, shadow energy spokesperson Dan Tehan, who had been tasked with leading a review of the Liberals' policy, said the party agreed it had to take action to reduce emissions, but that reducing energy prices was a more important priority.
"There was pretty much unanimity when it came to those principles," he told reporters.
"Obviously there was very, very passionate discussions in the room because energy and emissions reduction is an issue that everyone cares deeply about."
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Conservative Liberal MPs, including potential future leadership contender Andrew Hastie, Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and education spokesperson Jonno Duniam, have been pushing for the party to follow its junior Coalition partner, the Nationals, and dump the pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
They were buoyed by a new Reserve Political Monitor poll in Nine Newspapers today showing one in three voters want the federal government to scrap the net zero policy.
But moderate Liberal MPs have threatened or signalled they are ready to quit the shadow ministry if the pledge is abandoned.
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They include Senator Andrew Bragg, who insists the net zero target will help bring down power prices in the longer term, and Goldstein MP Tim Wilson, the only Liberal to defeat a sitting member in an inner-city seat during the May federal election.
"We face a choice," Wilson said before the meeting this morning.
"We can stand up to be a Liberal Party and fight for the future of this country…
"There's an alternative choice, which is that we just end up being the National Party-lite."
The impending decision to dump the emissions target sets up a political stoush with the Labor government, with Energy Minister Chris Bowen having previously described reaching net zero by 2050 as the "bare minimum".
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"What's good for the planet is good for your pocket," he said today.
"It's true for households, it's true for countries, it's true for communities."
Tensions over climate policy within the Liberal party are also stoking doubts over leader Sussan Ley's future.
Despite recent polling showing a small improvement in the party's standing among voters, speculation about a leadership challenge over the summer remains.
Right-wing MP and defence spokesman Angus Taylor – now a critic of net zero despite being energy minister when it was announced by Morrison – has refused to rule out standing against Ley.
The net zero target adopted by many major industrial nations was part of the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above the historical average.
It is supported by a range of Australian scientific, medical and environmental bodies, as well as the Business Council of Australia.
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