Overview: All major political parties in Australia recognise that the nation needs strong and effective climate change policies to reduce emissions. There is also bipartisan support for the globally agreed goal to limit global temperature increases to less than 2oC above pre-industrial levels. For Australia to play its fair part in global action, our emissions would need to fall by around 25 per cent by 2020 and around 60 per cent by 2030. Without a carbon price but even with the current RET unchanged Australia’s emissions are projected to grow by 30 per cent over this timeframe.

This policy brief outlines some of the key requirements for what constitutes effective climate policy and judges the proposals before the new Parliament convening in July 2014 against five criteria. These criteria are:

• Is there a national carbon budget?
• Can the policy deliver a 25 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 (below 2000 levels)?
• Can it deliver a net 40 per cent cut in emissions by 2025 (below 2000 levels) and 60 per cent by 2030?
• Does the policy ensure that Australia’s biggest polluters take responsibility for their emissions and don’t have entitlement to pollute for free?
• Are there independent and transparent governance structures?