Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen announced on Thursday that Australia’s emissions reduction target for 2035 is 62 per cent to 70 per cent lower than in 2005. What does it all mean?

Australia is a signatory to the Paris Agreement, the 2015 United Nations treaty on climate change. All members of the Paris Agreement are required to submit their targets for how much they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 before the next UN climate conference, COP30 in Brazil this November.

The world has already warmed 1.3 to 1.4 degrees above pre-industrial levels.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

The goal of the Paris Agreement is to have global emissions peak and then rapidly fall, so that by mid-century, the world achieves a balance between human-generated emissions and greenhouse removals by sinks. This equilibrium is also called “net zero”.

Signatories have agreed to pursue policies to keep the global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees.

That stands for “nationally determined contribution”. This is the commitment that each country makes to reduce emissions under the United Nations Paris Agreement.

The earlier Kyoto Protocol was a top-down approach, with emission reductions imposed on participating countries. It failed because it exempted developing countries, which let emerging emitters China and India off the hook, and the United States withdrew due to economic concerns.

The Paris Agreement was intended to bring everyone into the tent, so it let countries determine their own........

© Brisbane Times