Australia targets at least 62% emissions cut in the next decade
[September 18, 2025] By
ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia on Thursday set a new target of
reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by between 62% and 70% below 2005
levels by 2035.
The new target adds to Australia’s ambition of a 43% cut by the end of
this decade and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, leader of the center-left Labor Party,
will take his government’s 2035 target to the U.N. General Assembly next
week.
Under the Paris climate agreement signed a decade ago, nations must
increase their emissions reduction targets every five years.
“This is a responsible target backed by the science, backed by a
practical plan to get there and built on proven technology,” Albanese
told reporters.
“It’s the right target to protect our environment, to protect and
advance our economy and jobs and to ensure that we act in our national
interest and in the interest of this and future generations,” he added.
Albanese said the target was consistent with the European Union
considering for themselves a reduction target range of between 63% and
70% below 1990 levels.
Matt Kean, chair of the Climate Change Authority that advises the
government on climate policies, said Australia’s 2035 target
demonstrated a “higher ambition than most other advanced economies.”
Environmental groups had argued for a reduction target exceeding 70%.
But business groups had warned cuts above 70% would risk billions of
dollars in exports and send companies offshore.
The conservative opposition Liberal Party, which has lost the last two
federal elections, is considering abandoning its own commitment to
net-zero by 2050, its only reduction target.
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The sun rises over power-generating wind turbines at the Capital
Wind Farm near Canberra, Australia, on March 18, 2025. (Mick Tsikas/AAP
Image via AP)
 Opposition leader Sussan Ley said
the 2035 target was not credible because the government would fail
to meet its 2030 target.
“These targets cannot be met. They are fantasy: we know, Australians
know, and they’re very disappointed in this prime minister,” Ley
told reporters.
The government maintains Australia is on track to narrowly achieve
its 2030 target.
Larissa Waters, a senator leading the environmentally-focused
Australian Greens, said the government’s actual target was 62%,
which she described as “appallingly low.”
The government was not addressing Australia’s coal and liquefied
natural gas exports, which were among the world’s largest of those
fossil fuels, she said.
“Labor have sold out to the coal and gas corporations with this
utter failure of a climate target,” Waters told the Australian
Broadcasting Corp.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew
McKellar described the 2035 target as “ambitious.”
“One of the biggest issues that industry faces at the moment is the
costs that we incur in terms of energy. We’ve got to have a
sustainable pathway forward. We’ve got to have energy security and
we’ve got to have energy affordability as well,” McKellar said.
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