Australia’s climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, is “not giving up” on the Paris climate agreement despite the US president, Donald Trump, moving to pull the world’s second-largest polluter out of the global accord.
Bowen made the comments as the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, all but ruled out withdrawing from Paris if he won the federal election in 2025, suggesting such a move would damage trading relationships and cost jobs.
Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the US from the agreement within hours of his inauguration on Monday, as he moved swiftly to implement policies to accelerate fossil fuel production.
The pivot from a pro-climate agenda under Joe Biden – who rejoined the Paris accord after Trump withdrew in his first presidential term – will have implications for the fight to limit global temperature rise to below 2C.
Asked on Thursday if Trump’s return to the White House would put the Paris targets out of reach, Bowen said: “We’re not giving up on that.
“Every little inch of difference from 1.5[C] makes a huge difference. So it’s appropriate that the world keeps working towards it,” he said.
The minister insisted Labor would not adjust the pace or ambition of Australia’s green energy transition in light of Trump’s policies, as he announced a $2bn injection for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – the government-owned green bank – to invest in renewables projects.
“We’ve always based our policies on Australia’s best interests, Australia’s economy, Australia’s circumstances, and they haven’t changed,” he said.
However, Bowen said it was appropriate for the Climate Change Authority (CCA) to assess the US context before issuing its advice on a 2035 emission target, a delay which means Labor won’t announce a figure before the election, due on or before 17 May.
A CCA spokesperson, when asked for a timeframe, could only confirm the advice would be presented in the “coming months”.
Dutton on Thursday criticised Labor for not setting a 2035 target, despite having ruled out announcing a 2030 or 2035 target of his own before the election.
The Liberal leader appeared to raise the prospect of not setting medium-term goals even in government. “We’re not having targets,” he replied when asked when the 2030 target would be released.
Guardian Australia sought clarification from Dutton’s office about the comment but did not receive a response.
The Coalition is committed to net zero by 2050.
As the Paris agreement requires countries to progressively raise their ambitions at five-year intervals, Australia will be breaching its commitments if it does not set a new target.
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Bowen said Dutton’s failure to set his own targets meant he had “zero credibility” in the debate.
In a 2GB interview earlier on Thursday, Dutton all but confirmed a future Coalition government would not follow Trump’s lead and pull Australia out of the Paris agreement, as he faced a string of questions about whether it was in the country’s interests to remain in the deal.
Dutton suggested Australia would be hit with tariffs if it withdrew, which would hurt exporters.
“We’re an export nation,” he said.
“So, unlike the United States, we’re a small nation, we’re a population of only 27 million people. We produce more than we can consume. Farmers and manufacturers rely on markets in Asia, in Europe, in America, to export our products.
“We’ve signed up to an international agreement, which I think will have continuing relevance for countries in Europe.
“To have European countries, for example, but not exclusively, applying tariffs to our exports would mean a loss of economic activity here, a loss of jobs. So, we have to have a sensible balance.”
But Nationals senator and vocal net zero sceptic Matt Canavan took to X to rebuke his Coalition colleague’s argument.
“Some people claim that we have to stay in Paris agreement because otherwise our exports would be hit with carbon tariffs,” Canavan wrote.
“The EU is the only region proposing to do this. Their carbon tariffs would impact just 0.11% of our exports.
“Not even worth worrying about it!”