Australia gives in-principle support for net zero by 2050

Australia’s Cabinet will consider conditions the government’s junior coalition partner has placed on committing the nation to a target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia’s Cabinet on Monday will consider conditions the government’s junior coalition partner has placed on committing the national to a target of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.

The Nationals party’s in-principle support for the target, agreed at a meeting on Sunday, is a breakthrough for Prime Minister Scott Morrison who wants to take a more ambitious plan to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions when he leaves on Thursday for a U.N. summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Nationals lawmakers were tight-lipped on the conditions the party had placed on their support.

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who is also deputy prime minister, declined to say whether the party had demanded that Resources Minister Keith Pitt be made the fifth Nationals’ Cabinet minister.