The financial cost to reach net zero by 2050 may shape the Coalition’s decision on whether to retain or abandon the target, the new shadow minister, Dan Tehan, says, as he prepares to lead a heavily contested internal review of the policy.
The opposition is poised for a protracted brawl over climate targets after the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, put all of its policies up for debate after the Coalition’s federal election defeat.
The Coalition remained deeply torn on net zero, with Nationals such as Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce campaigning for the commitment to be dumped and Liberals including Andrew Hastie – touted by some as a future leader – expressing fresh scepticism about the goal.
In his first interview with Guardian Australia as the shadow energy and emissions reduction minister, Tehan said there was “room for all voices to be heard” in the debate.
Asked whether it was possible to land an agreed position, given such divergent views, Tehan said: “That’s the challenge that Sussan (Ley) has asked me to undertake.
“I mightn’t have many capabilities but one I do have is dogged determination,” he said.
Tehan said details about the review process would be released imminently, with the Coalition’s position on the Paris agreement and gas reservation scheme also up for debate.
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The Liberals and Nationals have already walked back the Peter Dutton-era nuclear energy plan, agreeing to pledge to lift the federal moratorium but stopping short of committing to building government-owned power plants.
As the opposition weighs up the pros and cons of pursuing net zero, Tehan signalled the economic cost of decarbonising the economy would be the main consideration.
“The cost will be one of the most significant factors that will drive our decision,” Tehan said, accusing the government of obscuring the cost of signature climate policies, including the capacity investment scheme.
The government does not have a dollar figure for achieving net zero by 2050.
However, in response to a recent Senate estimates question on notice that sought such a number, climate department officials warned of the significant cost of “climate inaction” for Australia.
The response – dated 29 May – referenced the 2023 intergenerational report, which estimated the commonwealth could be forced to spend an extra $130bn on disaster payments by the 2060s due to climate-fuelled disasters including bushfire and floods.
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Tehan wants to focus the wider climate and energy debate around economics, vowing to apply more scrutiny to the cost of Labor’s renewables-focused path to net zero than it was subjected to during the election.
Senior Coalition MPs have conceded Dutton’s campaign was too slow to counter Labor’s attacks on its supposed $600bn nuclear reactors, allowing that claim to overshadow questioning of the price tag for the government’s approach.
“What I’m going to do is, I’m actually going to say to Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen, ‘what are the true costs of your approach,’” Tehan said.
“I will hold them to account on that. And that, I think, will make us very competitive at the next election. They might actually find that they’re going to be held to account in the same way they tried to hold us to account.”
Along with the proposed taxpayer-funded nuclear power plants, Dutton’s plan for an east coast gas reservation scheme represented a significant government intervention that caused unease among free-market Liberals MPs.
Tehan said while government intervention was appropriate in cases of “market failure”, the priority should be to stimulate private investment.
If Albanese secures a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7, Tehan said the prime minister should confront the US president about his intention to pull out of the Paris agreement and what impact that might have on Australia.
Tehan said Albanese should also ask Trump if he would attend next year’s UN climate summit if Australia won the hosting rights.
