What would following Australia’s ‘leadership’ on the climate crisis actually look like?

Speaking to the ABC, Tim Wilson defended the Morrison government’s record on net zero policies and criticised China and the UK’s ‘backsliding’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

If the rest of the world followed Australia’s “leadership” on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and reaching net zero, what would that mean? This was the question we were left to ponder after the assistant energy minister, Tim Wilson, defended the Morrison government’s record this week after the latest UN climate assessment was released.

“We need global emissions to come down, which means we need other countries to follow our leadership in making sure they take decisions and back them in,” Wilson told the ABC, while criticising the UK and China for “backsliding” and a lack of commitment on targets.