European Union has undertaken a significant deal to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2030, stressing the importance for the Australian government to reinforce its efforts for greenhouse gas cuts. European leaders have arranged one of the first major commitments to post-2020 emissions cuts before the meeting in Paris next year. In this context, the Australian government has established a target of a 5% cut in emissions by 2020, based on 2000 levels. According to the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, the Australian plan represents an ambitious goal. However, the independent Climate Change Authority has criticized this program as inadequate, calling for a reduction of at least 15%. The EU has also established additional 27% targets for the renewable energy market share and the increase in energy efficiency improvement by 2030. Australian renewable energy target indicates that 41,000 gigawatt hours of the energy must come from renewable sources by 2020. According to the Environment Minister, the government welcome all progress with the aim to reduce emissions, reinforcing the efforts to meet its targets for 2020. In this context, the Greens stress the importance for the Coalition to undertake stronger measures because Australia’s current emissions target is disastrously inadequate. The Coalition needs to show ambition for deeper cuts, the Greens say. Christine Milne, the Greens leader, has strongly criticized the government’s policy, highlighting that is important to take into account that we are in the midst of a global energy revolution. In this way, the government must shift towards a clean energy policy to achieve concrete results. The decarbonisation of the energy sector must represent a key objective of the political agenda, the deputy chief executive of the Climate Institute said. Renewable energy must play a crucial role in this field, rather than basing the target around short-term industry interests. In relation to that, Australian power sector needs to continue decarbonising over this and coming decades. The gLAWcal Team POREEN project Friday, 24 October 2014 (Source: The Guardian)