Albanese cites 62–70% 2035 emissions target, battery uptake, Pacific aid
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told delegates at the opening of Climate Week at the United Nations in New York on Monday that “there’s no avoiding the scale of our responsibility – or the cost of inaction.” The address came ahead of the general debate of the UN General Assembly.
Albanese said Australians have experienced the effects of climate change through what he described as “a series of disastrous bushfires and floods in the past decades.” People, he said, have “faced up to the adversity.” It was now the turn of politicians, he said, to match their “bravery” and “take the strong action needed to try to tackle the problem.”
“We need to come together, to meet the problem head on,” Albanese said.
Setting out Australia’s domestic efforts, Albanese said his government has set an “ambitious but achievable” target to reduce emissions by 62 to 70 percent on 2005 levels by 2035. The country, he said, will “get there” with a mixture of renewable power backed by gas.
Albanese said Australia is now a leader in home battery installation, with Australians installing “ten thousand batteries each week – more than half a million in the past year.” Australia understood “the important role it must play,” he said, and needed to back “something positive” to “build a better future for the next generation.”
On regional support, Albanese said Australia is contributing A$100 million to the Pacific Resilience Facility and is running the REnew Pacific Program. The program, he said, is funding climate-resilient classrooms in Vanuatu and Fiji, and clean energy and water on one of Kiribati’s most remote islands. He claimed the program has “directly improved 300,000 lives.”
He closed by saying Australia “understands the dangers of global warming and the urgency of climate action as much as any other country.”