Exclusive: Top climate advisers divided over report, which recommends a policy that could break the political gridlock over climate change
A Climate Change Authority review charged with advising the government on how to meet its climate change commitments has led to an unprecedented split in its top ranks, with two of the body’s 11 members writing a dissenting “minority report”.
Guardian Australia understands the official Climate Change Authority report will recommend Australia adopt an intensity-based trading scheme for electricity generators.
A similar scheme was taken to the 2016 election by the Labor party, and was also proposed by Malcolm Turnbull in 2009 when he was opposition leader. Many believe it is a promising way to form a bipartisan approach to climate policy.
That mechanism has already been in force, and sets emissions “baselines” for 140 of Australia’s biggest polluters, which are supposed to cap their emissions, but is currently so generous it will not lead to a cut in carbon emissions.
The “special review” was commissioned by the former environment minister Greg Hunt in December 2014, after the government failed to pass legislation to abolish the Climate Change Authority through the Senate.
The review was primarily intended to assess whether Australia should have an Emissions Trading Scheme and what conditions should trigger it.
In doing that, the authority was ordered to consider what other countries were doing, as well as what Australia’s international commitments were under international agreements.
The report will be released publicly on Wednesday afternoon, but two authority members – the economist Clive Hamilton and the climate scientist David Karoly – were so unhappy with its contents they will be writing a dissenting minority report.
Hamilton told Guardian Australia he and Karoly will be preparing the report, but declined to comment further.
The point of contention between the dissenting members is understood to be over what level of emissions cuts the recommendations are designed to achieve.
It is understood the dissenters believe the current report is not consistent with the terms of reference of the review, which requires the recommendations to consider Australia’s international commitments, including those made at Paris.
The minority report is expected to be published on Friday on the website of the Climate Council – the body that emerged from the Climate Commission after it was abolished by the Abbott government in 2013.
The CCA report was expected to put pressure on the new energy minister Josh Frydenberg, who recently indicated the Direct Action policy didn’t need to be changed significantly.
Guardian Australia understands the CCA’s review was backed by all other members of the Authority, including:
- former federal National party parliamentarian John Sharp
- former head of the Productivity Commission Wendy Craik
- associate director of the ANU Centre for Climate Law & Policy, Andrew Macintosh
- Australia’s chief scientist Alan Finkel
- Managing director of economics consulting firm Frontier Economics, Danny Price
- economist and Australian laureate fellow at the University of Queensland, John Quiggen
- currently acting chief executive of the Climate Change Authority, Shayleen Thompson
- former Liberal chief minister of the ACT and former chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kate Carnell
- energy consultant and manager Stuart Allinson
