The government’s plan to reach net zero by 2050 is guided by a mantra of “technology,not taxes”,which rules out limits on greenhouse gases or a carbon price and assumes industry will reduce its global warming contribution of its own accord.
Each Australian would be $2000 better off by 2050,according to the government’s modelling released on Friday,but this figure does not include the financial costs of global warming.
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The modelling included only the benefits from committing to net zero – such as growth in critical minerals to build renewable energy or a reduction in borrowing costs for foreign capital.
But 86 per cent of a panel of 58 top local economists selected by the Economic Society of Australia last month backed an emissions reduction target coupled with a carbon price as the most efficient method to reduce greenhouse emissions.
Economist and Climate Council spokesperson Nicki Hutley said on Tuesday it was a “real Hail Mary” policy from the government that assumed voluntary action from industry to curb its emissions and did not factor in the economic impacts of warming.
“Any good modelling includes a cost-benefit analysis,but they have excluded the costs of failing to act on climate change,such as health,damage to property from weather events or economic distortions,” Ms Hutley said.