UN climate chief warns Australia not to pick a ‘bog standard’ 2035 carbon emissions target

The UN’s Simon Stiell has urged Australia to not ‘settle for what’s easy’ when it comes to setting a 2035 emissions target. Photograph: Bernd Arnold/The Guardian

The UN’s climate chief has declared Australia’s 2035 emissions target will define the country’s future, and urged the Albanese government to not pick a “bog-standard” number but to “go for what’s smart by going big”.

Speaking in Sydney on Monday, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary, Simon Stiell, cast the government’s decision on the target – due by September – as the country’s “one shot” to build an “on-ramp to the Asian clean tech boom”, create hundreds of thousands of jobs and ensure the country’s economic security and regional influence.