‘Now is the hour’: Labor urged to speed up fossil fuel phase-out to justify Cop30 pledge

Anthony Albanese at the G20 leaders' summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Australian PM did not directly answer when asked by reporters if Australia would ‘taper down’ fossil fuel production. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/EPA

The Albanese government is being urged to explain how it will drive a fossil fuel phase-out, after it joined dozens of countries at a UN climate summit to back a declaration that the world should quickly wean off coal, gas and oil.

Australia signed up to the declaration on a just transition away from fossil fuels at a side event at the Cop30 conference in the Brazilian city of Belém, which finished on Saturday night local time, more than 24 hours after the scheduled close.