Paris climate commitments removed from FTA due to Australian pressure: email

When Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison announced they had finalised a trade deal between Australia and the UK it was sold as win/win deal.

But now the British government is under fire for giving ground to Australia on climate change goals just months before it will be urging other nations to cut emissions when it hosts the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow.

A leaked email from a senior official in the British cabinet office – obtained by Sky News UK – allegedly shows the Brits agreed to drop certain references to commitments from the Paris climate change agreement in a bid to appease Australia and get a free trade deal over the line.

John Sauven, the Executive Director of Greenpeace in the UK, told the ABC he had seen the email and said it shows Australia was pushing to remove references to Paris temperature commitments from the free trade agreement.

“The Australian government said they would not sign a trade agreement if those were in the trade deal and three ministers, senior ministers in the cabinet were consulted on this and the agreement was that in order to get the trade deal over the line they would remove those temperature commitments which basically underpin the Paris Agreement from the trade deal,” he said.

The news has been greeted with scathing criticism from across the political spectrum.

Labour’s Ed Miliband accused the British government of rolling over to one of the world’s biggest polluters.

“This is simply a massive betrayal of our country and our planet.”

The Greens said it showed a willingness to compromise on the existential challenge of our time.

Former Conservative environment minister Lord Deben said Britain had surrendered its lead on climate change and was going back on its promises.

“If we’re not prepared to hang our hat on the Paris Agreement to which we have put our solemn promise and which we have put by law into action in this country… when we are dealing with Australia – which is one of the recalcitrant nations – one of the countries that is not doing what it ought to do – then really we are not taking the lead at all and to do this at a time before COP26 is very serious,” he told Sky News UK.

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Britain’s trade secretary Liz Truss was unavailable for interview, but a government spokesperson provided a statement saying the FTA will “include a substantiative article on climate change”.

“Our ambitious trade deal with Australia will include a substantive article on climate change which reaffirms both parties’ commitments to The Paris Agreement and achieving its goals, including limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees,” the statement said.

“Any suggestion the deal won’t sign up to these vital commitments is completely untrue.”

The trade deal could be formally signed in weeks and by then it might be known for sure whether Australia has forced concessions from the UK.

When approached by the ABC, Australia’s Trade Minister Dan Tehan, did not deny the reports, but said Australia and the UK have agreed to work cooperatively on environmental issues, including emissions reduction, and the trade deal will include commitments relating to a number of environment issues.

Speaking on 4BC radio, Mr Tehan said climate references were never part of any Australian free trade agreements.

“We like our free trade agreements to actually be about free trade and multilateral environmental agreements is where you negotiate emissions reductions,” he said.

“What this does is say we’ve signed up to the Paris agreement and we’ll meet our Paris targets.”