Australia’s Senate on Thursday voted to ensure the government’s elevated target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade is enshrined in law.
The Senate passed legislation supporting the target in a vote of 37 to 30 even though several senators who supported it wanted a more ambitious 2030 target.
The center-left Labor Party government officially committed Australia to the 43% target after it came to power for the first time in nine years at May elections. But entrenching it in law would make it more difficult for any future government to reduce the target.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the Senate vote provided certainty to clean energy investors while strengthening transparency and accountability in Australia’s carbon reduction processes.
“The message to investors is that Australia is open for business,” Bowen told Parliament.
The conservative opposition party voted against the bill. The opposition has advocated since 2015 a target of reducing emissions by between 26% and 28%.
Independent senator David Pocock insisted on several amendments touching on transparency and accountability before he supported the bill.
These have yet to be passed by the House of Representatives, which had already passed the original bill.
But unlike the Senate, the government holds a majority in the House which ensures the amendments will become law.
Greens party senators supported the 43% ambition although their proposed amendments to increase the target to at least 75% and ban future Australian coal and gas projects were defeated.
