SYDNEY (AFP, REUTERS) - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday (Oct 15) withdrew a threat to skip next month's landmark United Nations climate summit, describing the meeting as "an important event".
"I confirmed my attendance at the Glasgow summit, which I'm looking forward to attending," Mr Morrison told journalists. "The government will be finalising its position to take to the summit. We're working through those issues."
Under mounting pressure to adopt more ambitious climate targets, the conservative leader had suggested that he would not join other heads of government in Scotland's largest city.
His comments angered climate activists and were seen as a direct diplomatic snub to Britain, a close ally and the summit's host.
In a rare foray into politics, Britain's Prince Charles expressed surprise at Mr Morrison's reluctance and said it would be a "disaster" if leaders did not take firm action to arrest climate change.
Widely seen as a climate laggard, Australia is one of the world's largest coal and gas exporters and has long resisted adopting a carbon-neutral target.
While Mr Morrison has inched towards setting a target date of 2050 for that goal, he has refused to make the target binding and has yet to commit to more meaningful 2030 emissions-reduction targets.
Mr Morrison has said Australia wants to achieve net-zero emissions "as soon as possible and preferably by 2050" and it expects to beat its pledge to cut carbon emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
The 12-day meeting in Scotland will be the biggest climate conference since landmark talks in Paris in 2015, and is seen as a crucial step in setting worldwide emissions targets to slow global warming.
Mr David Ritter, chief executive officer of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said Mr Morrison's attendance was welcome but would prove meaningless unless accompanied with commitment to concrete action.
"Morrison doesn't deserve a golf clap for simply committing to turn up at the world's most important climate conference," he said.
"Simply showing up at COP26 with empty words and promises, while greenwashing Australia's pathetic climate track record, isn't good enough," he added.
Australia's position at Glasgow will depend on Mr Morrison's ability to win the backing of climate-sceptics within his own ruling coalition.
Mr Morrison is engaged in negotiations with the junior partner in his coalition government, the rural-based National party, about strengthening climate targets.
The National party, which is concerned about the impact of carbon targets on farming and coal mining, will meet on Sunday to discuss Mr Morrison's plan.
Mr Morrison must face a general election by May 2022 and he needs to appease moderates in his Liberal Party pressing for climate action, while at the same time retaining support of the National party.
