Australians deserve an independent national energy policy that prioritises affordability and reliability over carbon dioxide emission reductions, but hope has been dashed by Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s reaffirmed commitment to the Paris Agreement.

It makes no sense for Australia to be committed to unrealistic CO2 reduction targets under an agreement that allows the world’s largest emitter, China, to increase emissions by billions of tonnes.

One Nation opposes the Paris Agreement; our policy is to walk away from it. It’s a farce. None of the large emitters that have signed up to it—China, India, Russia, Brazil and the United States – are remotely on track to meet their commitments.

Neither is Australia. Our progress against Paris targets has relied heavily on substantially increasing the estimates of CO2 sequestration from land use and forestry. Nothing meaningful has actually been done in this sector other than doubling sequestration estimates in 2021, again in 2022, and yet again in 2023. This doesn’t reduce Australia’s emissions at all, but it does lock up a lot of land that can’t be farmed or otherwise developed. Labor’s record high immigration also increases emissions.

And it’s all effectively meaningless when China – responsible for 30% of global emissions – is allowed by the Paris Agreement to continue to increase emissions to an unspecified and undated ‘peak’ before 2030, and is in fact going to add at least another two billion tonnes of emissions in that short time. In the meantime Australia – responsible for only 1% of global emissions – is required to reduce them by 43% by 2030 thanks to Labor’s reckless and futile attempts to appease climate change zealots and win back votes lost to the Greens.

The massive taxpayer-subsidised rollout of unreliable and expensive renewables is not helping to reduce emissions because renewables rely heavily on natural gas to shore up their intermittent supply. The only real impact it has had is on our power bills – which have risen by up to 29% since July last year – and on supplies, which are in jeopardy as we face rolling blackouts this coming summer due to premature closure of coal-fired power stations.

Rather than this cowardly re-commitment to the Paris Agreement which no other country appears to take seriously, Peter Dutton needs to show some leadership, extricate Australia from Paris, and forge an independent national energy policy.