The government of Australia announced a new climate target, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 62% to 70% by 2035, on a 2005 basis.

With the release of its new target, Australia also unveiled plans for more than $8 billion (USD$5.3 billion) in new climate-related investments, targeting areas including industrial decarbonization, clean electricity, low-carbon fuels and EV charging infrastructure.

The new emissions reduction goal will form Australia’s new Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. NDCs are national climate action plans presented by each country under the agreement, and are required to be updated every five years with increasingly higher ambition. Australia’s current NDC is to achieve a 43% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030.

Alongside the new climate goal, the government also released a Net Zero Plan outlining its strategy to approach the 2035 goal and 2050 net zero target, as well as 6 sector emissions reduction plans support the Net Zero Plan. The Net Zero Plan outlines a series of key priority areas to achieve the majority of its planned 2035 emissions reductions, including increasing clean electricity by enabling more renewable electricity generation and new transmission and storage capacity, increasing electrification and efficiency with a new vehicle efficiency standard and supporting consumers’ switch to EVs, expanding clean fuels usage by establishing a low carbon liquid fuels industry and supporting green hydrogen, and investing in new technologies.

Sectors covered by the new sector-level plans include Electricity and Energy, Agriculture and Land, Built Environment, Industry, Resources, and Transport.

The plan also includes scaling up carbon removals as a priority area to balance residual emissions, highlighting land-based approaches such as reforestation as the most cost-effective abatement area.

New investments announced in support of the climate goals include the establishment of a $5 billion Net Zero Fund to help industrial facilities decarbonize and to scale up renewable energy and low emissions manufacturing, $2 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, $1.1 billion for clean fuels production, in addition to investments targeting the acceleration of fast EV charging, improving household energy performance, and decarbonization efforts by sports clubs.

In a press conference announcing the new 2035 target, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:

“This is a responsible target, backed by the science, backed by a practical plan to get there and built on proven technology. 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.”

Click here to access Australia’s Net Zero Plan and sector plans.