"This is the first time that reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been enshrined in Australian law," Tommy Wiedmann, a sustainability expert at the University of New South Wales, told AFP.

These laws apply to some 215 major industrial facilities – each producing more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year – and form the backbone of Australia's commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.

By forcing these units to reduce their emissions by 4.9% a year, Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government believes it can prevent the release of 200 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere over the next decade.

The facilities concerned, operated in particular by mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto, produce nearly 30% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Australian NGO Climate Council.

"What Parliament has done today is save our climate, save our economy and save our future," Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said, welcoming the adoption of the law before elected officials.

The government said the plan ended a decade of political wrangling that has repeatedly derailed attempts to tackle climate change.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, during a traditional welcoming ceremony in Fiji, in Nadi on March 15, 2023 © LEON LORD / AFP/Archives

He reached an agreement on the safeguard mechanism after several weeks of difficult negotiations with the Green Party. They finally agreed to support the carbon plan after persuading the government to set a strict cap on emissions.

Natural disasters

The end of Australia's climate inaction is "a step in the right direction" that "marginalises climate sceptics," said Martin Brueckner of Murdoch University in Perth.

But this new legislation "will not be enough on its own", warns Mr Wiedmann, according to whom "difficult decisions will have to be taken in the coming years".

The Mining Industry Council, representing industrialists, warned of the risk of "deterioration of the national economy", and of seeing "tens of thousands of jobs" disappear.

Australia (population 26 million) alone accounts for more than 1% of global emissions and is the 14th largest polluter, according to the Australian government body for scientific research CSIRO. The mining sector accounts for 14.6% of its GDP, according to its central bank.

Elected last year, Albanese promised to end fossil fuel policies he said were implemented by the Conservatives, who were in power for nine years.

Long lagging behind in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions, the country has evolved after a series of natural disasters blamed at least in part on climate change.

In the austral summer of 2019-20, Australia saw giant bushfires devastate some eight million hectares of vegetation, killing more than 400 inhabitants.

The country also regularly experiences bleaching episodes of its coral reef. Last year about twenty people died in floods on the east coast.

© 2023 AFP