So does Simon Stiell want Australia to aim for an 80% reduction on 2005 emissions levels by 2035 as has been widely reported as the closed door figure, or no?

Chris Bowen:

Simon has made the same case privately as he’s made publicly, that a good target and good climate policy is good economics policy. He’s made the case for Australia that it’s good national security policy in our region. We’ve made that case ourselves, and made that point ourselves in the Pacific on a very regular basis. So, there’s a strong degree of alignment there in terms of objective. But we’ll be setting our target in terms of our national interest, what’s good for Australia, what comes out of the modelling as the right balance for us, of course, also as the Climate Change Act demands, which we put into place consideration of the science and all the evidence before us.

So don’t expect too much from the government then. It is, after all, the least they can do.