The Liberal frontbencher Andrew Bragg says any \u201cfatwa\u201d waged against the words net zero is \u201cridiculous\u201d, as the moderate senator threatened to quit the frontbench if the party dumps the target and withdraws from the Paris climate agreement.<\/p>\n
Bragg\u2019s ultimatum piles further pressure on the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, ahead of a series of high-stakes meetings this week to settle the Coalition\u2019s position on net zero emissions.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the meetings, the opposition\u2019s energy spokesperson, Dan Tehan, signalled support for extending the life of coal-fired power stations \u2013 possibly with the help of taxpayer subsidies \u2013 as part of a strategy to reduce prices through \u201cenergy abundance\u201d.<\/p>\n
Liberal MPs will reconvene in Canberra on Wednesday to debate the pillars of the party\u2019s energy platform, including its commitment to net zero emissions, before the Liberal shadow ministry meets on Thursday to ratify a position.<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n A joint party room meeting has been scheduled for Sunday 16 November to endorse a joint position with the Nationals. The junior coalition partner has already decided to abandon net zero.<\/p>\n Bragg is among a group of mostly moderate Liberals fighting to salvage some commitment to carbon neutrality after senior conservatives turned against the policy, encouraging Ley to not only jettison the Scott Morrison-era 2050 target, but any reference to net zero at all.<\/p>\n It means Ley faces an internal backlash that will intensify pressure on her leadership regardless of which position she lands on.<\/p>\n Guardian Australia last week reported a view among some Liberals that the term \u201cnet zero\u201d, as much as the substance of the policy, had become toxic<\/a> in the political debate.<\/p>\n Asked on Sunday if Ley could survive as leader if she caved to conservatives and adopted the Nationals\u2019 clean break from net zero emissions, Bragg criticised the campaign against the target.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t have a fatwa on two words. This [net zero] is the international standard. I mean, trying to pretend you\u2019re not going to say two words is absolutely ridiculous,\u201d the shadow housing minister told ABC\u2019s Insiders.<\/p>\n \u201cAustralia is part of the international community. It is not actually the net zero accord which is driving higher power prices. It is Labor\u2019s disastrous energy policies.\u201d<\/p>\n Speculation of frontbench resignations and the Coalition potentially splitting, again, resurfaced as moderate Liberals weigh up their options if their party adopts the Nationals\u2019 position.<\/p>\n Bragg was pushed several times on Sunday on whether he would resign from the shadow ministry if the Liberals dumped net zero entirely and walked away from the Paris agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, sure, but I don\u2019t imagine that we\u2019ll ever leave Paris. I mean, we are a party of government, right? We are not a fringe party, we\u2019re not fringe dwellers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n There is no serious talk that the Coalition would commit to following Donald Trump\u2019s lead and withdraw Australia from Paris.<\/p>\n Even the Nationals don\u2019t support pulling out of Paris despite ditching net zero.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n