Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor has refused to outline any costing detail of the government's plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 apart from confirming it will be significantly more.
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Appearing on the ABC's Insiders program, the minister insisted taxpayers "won't pay anything" in new taxes over the course of the plan, but would not say how much taxpayers will have to pay in the lead up to 2050. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is taking the commitment to the climate summit in Glasgow after securing the support of the junior Coalition partner, the Nationals.
One known component, a $20 billion investment for new low emissions technology is from existing policies and Mr Taylor accepted that it was not new funding.
Mr Taylor said the government had only allocated money to 2030 and said what at a future government does in the late 2040s is a matter for them.
"Well, taxpayers are not paying anything. We're not raising taxes. I mean, that's the important point here," he said.
"To put us on target, to reach those targets on clean hydrogen, low-emissions steel and aluminium, we've allocated $20 billion which I have been describing. Future governments will allocate as they see fit into the 2030s, and 2040s. I won't commit for other governments."
Asked about the full cost of the government of the net zero plan up to 2050, Mr Taylor said the "run rate of the money we are spending over the next decade is what we would expect into the future."
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The opposition, the Greens and climate campaigners have slammed the deal as a fraud without new funding, high emissions commitments, designed to placate climate sceptics remaining in the government.
"Angus Taylor's plan is to do not very much by 2030 and leave it to future governments to do the rest," Labor's climate change spokesman Chris Bowen said in Sydney.
"The government which engaged in all sorts of scare campaigns in the past about the cost of Labor's policy, not able to release the modelling of their own and not able to answer basic questions about their own policy."
But Mr Taylor says the plan is achievable.
"We are committing between now and 2030, we're looking 10 years out. Governments often look only four years out, we've looked 10 years out," he said.
"We've established a pipeline over the next 10 years of what we're spending and part of the reason for that is making sure the private sector investment is coming in, so they can see the pipeline of support we are providing over that 10-year period.
"What a government does in the late 2040s is a matter for them."
Meantime, acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has finally confirmed the Nationals secured a multimillion-dollar regional transition fund in return for backing the government's net zero plan.