We should be proud of our climate change efforts.

Most Australians are proud of their country, and rightly so. Shrill cries that we should be “ashamed to be Australian” do not ring true with the quiet Australians. That won’t stop some commentators telling us that we should feel guilty about our performance on emissions reduction. They are wrong.

I represented Australia in Madrid at the climate summit and I was extremely proud to do so. Australia is responsible for only 1.3 per cent of global emissions, so we can’t single-handedly have a meaningful impact without the co-operation of the largest emitters such as China and the US. But we are doing our bit and more.

Australia meets and beats its emission-reductions targets, every time. We beat our first Kyoto targets by 128 million tonnes. We ­expect to beat our 2020 targets by 411 million tonnes (about 80 per cent of a year’s worth of emissions). Our 2030 Paris target is in line with, or better than, comparable countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Japan. We ­already have a strong plan to meet and beat our 2030 target down to the last tonne, driven by our $3.5bn Climate Solutions Package.

Read the opinion piece from The Australian by Energy Minister, Angus Taylor -“We should be proud of our climate change efforts.”

(Yes, “the facts” as per Angus Taylor, however, the facts as per most of the world’s leading climate scientists tell a whole different story - Australia is failing and we should be ashamed  - Robert McLean)