In a final press appearance while filling in for Prime Minister ScottMorrisonMP - who is on his way home from a family holiday in Hawaii - Michael McCormack agreed that 'further action' was needed to contribute to global efforts to lower emissions
Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has agreed Australia must increase its efforts to tackle climate change and says the bushfires gripping NSW and other parts of the country have increased community fears about global warming.
Mr McCormack criticised environmental activists who called for an end to coal mining, saying the sector "provides two-thirds of our energy needs" and was a $62 billion export industry that provided jobs for tens of thousands of Australians. "You don't want to get in the way of these professional people doing their job," he said. "I'm doing what I can from where I am ... I've already been there this week."
International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol's call for Australia to"take steps in line with [its] reputation" as"a responsible country" to reduce its emissions. Former prime minister Kevin Rudd said the Morrison government was "steadily shredding Australia's international reputation as a responsible global citizen" by "actively ... slowing down global action on carbon reduction".Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said "any rational observer" would conclude that "Australia has not handled climate and energy policy for the past 15 years".
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