SIMON LAUDER: Over the last 18 months, more than a 120 countries have pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and now, Australia is among them. On the eve of the global climate talks, the Federal Government has finally pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Angus Taylor is the Federal Energy Minister. Minister, good morning.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Good morning, Simon, thanks for having me.

SIMON LAUDER: Thanks so much for joining us. Now, all Australian states and territories have previously committed to a net zero target by 2050. Dozens of other countries seem to be way ahead of us. Why was it so hard for the Federal Government?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, because we have to get it right, Simon. I mean, people's livelihoods, lives depend on getting this right, particularly in regional areas. Most of the investment, most of the changes that have to happen are in regional Australia and we, as a party that represents a large proportion of regional Australia, are very sensitive to making sure we get the policies right, we make sure that it's right for our traditional industries, agriculture, mining, heavy manufacturing, and that we're creating jobs, not destroying them. I mean, lots of countries, lots of others in politics have gone headlong into this without a clear plan, without really understanding the implications. Well, we've made sure in this plan, that there's a path forward that's responsible, that's practical, and that reflects Australian values in the Australian way and that's what we've laid out yesterday.

SIMON LAUDER: Under this plan, what changes will there be for the South East? For places like Cooma and Nimmitabel, Batemans Bay and Eden?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, look, obviously there are great opportunities here for agriculture. Australia has about 90 million hectares of productive agricultural lands. It's a carbon sink now, it carries a lot of carbon. Farmers understand that there's organic carbon in their soil all the time, and as your soil improves, then you can carry more and that is a really fantastic opportunity for Australian agriculture. It's part of what we've been working through. We've made significant investments and announcements in recent months on upgrading our soils and making sure we've got healthier soils, we're regenerating them. That is a great opportunity for farmers right across the southeast of New South Wales. Not only in the Tablelands, those areas you described - of course, that's an opportunity - but also down on the coast as well and the dairy farming areas.

SIMON LAUDER: Now, a combination of the government selected technologies is expected to reduce emissions by 85 per cent under this plan, with the rest, 15 per cent, to be achieved through future technologies. How confident are you that these solutions that are yet to arrive will be here in time?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, that's not quite right, Simon. The technologies we expect to deliver that final 15 per cent are technologies are likely to be ones we already know. They just haven't got to the point where we know they can deliver. So if you look at our priority technologies, which are delivering about 40 per cent of the emissions, things like clean hydrogen, we understand it well. We produce a lot of hydrogen already here in Australia, stored energy. We understand a lot about storage. I mean, massive storage projects in the Snowy Mountains of course at Snowy 2.0. So, they're very familiar technologies. We can see how the costs are going to come down over the coming decades. The final 15 per cent is about technologies we're not there yet with. So, whether it's feed supplements for livestock, whether it's low emissions cement - enormous amount of work going on in that right now, and we're investing in it here in Australia. These are technologies where we just don't know yet whether they're going to get there and that means investing in a number of them, knowing some aren't going to work, and making sure that others do. Part of what we think may well fill that 15 per cent is upside on soil carbon and regeneration of our soils and that carbon sink, extending the scale of that carbon sink that I was talking about earlier. And this is fantastic for farmers, because it's both increasing their productivity and bringing down carbon emissions at the same time.

SIMON LAUDER: Now, in response to calls for more ambitious short-term targets for 2030, as you know the Prime Minister was saying yesterday Australia is on track to cut emissions by 30 to 35 per cent by 2030 anyway but this morning, the annual UN Emissions Gap Report is saying we need to effectively have the world's annual emissions by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees. What do you think of that? It makes it sound like Australia is still not doing enough on that front.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, we're doing an enormous amount. I mean, look, if you look at our achievements, we're 20.8 per cent down since 2005. So that's stronger than the United States, stronger than Japan, better performance than France, New Zealand and Canada. Keep in mind, New Zealand and Canada are very similar to Australia in being big commodity exporting countries - better than the OECD average, certainly better than countries like China and India. China, we've seen an increase of more than 70 per cent over that time period. So, we do need to see emissions coming down. We're doing an enormous amount. We will meet and beat our 2030 targets, and we will continue to improve on our performance, I have no doubt, in the coming years but the great challenge for the world is, the developing world's emissions are rising rapidly, and have been rising rapidly. That's why technology is so critical. We need to make sure that we are developing those technologies, bringing them to commerciality. Just as we're seeking and have a plan in Australia to bring our emissions down and strengthen our economy at the same time, we need to make sure those technologies, like hydrogen stored energy, are able to bring down emissions in developing in countries like China and India.

SIMON LAUDER: If Australia, as you say, is already on track to beat its existing targets by 2030, where's the incentive to act before then? Is the heavy lifting going to be left until after 2030?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, we are acting. I mean, look, the end of the day you've got to be investing in these long-term technologies that are going to give us emissions reductions over multiple decades. If you just think about 2030, you get it wrong. Of course, we are thinking about 2030 but you've also got about the longer term. And getting that balance right is absolutely crucial. That's why this mix of technologies, which includes a focus on heavy manufacturing, low-emission steel, clean aluminium. I mean, these are really difficult problems for the world to solve. Australia's well positioned to make a very significant contribution, and at the same time grow our heavy industry, our manufacturing in ways that we haven't been able to in the past.

SIMON LAUDER: Just on the text line now, Minister, Harry in Cadgee says this so-called plan is just a wish list, it has no modelling. What do you say to that?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, it absolutely is modelling. The outcomes of the modelling are laid out in the 120 page-plus documents. I encourage your listeners who are interested in this to have a look at it. It's very clear what this tells us. The average Australian will be $2000 better off by 2050. Under this plan we're investing $20 billion in the research and development, commercialisation of the technologies I've described. We've announced a whole suite of policies over recent months, establishment of hydrogen hubs, investment in our soils, investing in carbon capture and storage hubs, reconfiguring the emissions reduction fund, which is the one that provides incentives to farmers and others for abating carbon. So these have been very significant reforms. Refunding ARENA, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. This is a suite of policies we've been developing for several years. That suite of policies gets us now to a point where we know, we are confident, we're within range of net zero 2050, and we can accept that target and get on with it.

SIMON LAUDER: And as the minister for Emissions Reduction, will you be in Glasgow yourself?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I will. I'll be heading off with the Prime Minister later this week.

SIMON LAUDER: Angus Taylor, thank you so much for joining us to tell us about this plan. Just on politics locally, I guess this is one policy that will be in the background of a couple of state by-elections and a federal election coming up as well. Bega MP Andrew Constance says he's hoping the Nationals won't run candidates in the federal seats of Eden-Monaro or Gilmore that he's contesting in this upcoming election. Do you agree that the Nationals should stay away and prevent a three-cornered contest in those seats?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Look at this is something I understand pretty well, because in my electorate of Hume, it's always, in the past, has been an issue. I think that's a matter for the National Party. I'm sure it'll be worked through by the Coalition. The National Party always has a right to put up new candidates when incumbent candidates leave and of course, that's the situation we have here. We don't have an incumbent candidate. So this will be something that will be worked through in a cordial way. Look, the Coalition has been incredibly successful for a long, long time. We work through hard issues, and this will just be another issue for us to work through.

SIMON LAUDER: Is it a key issue in terms of potentially regaining Gilmore for the Coalition?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, of course we'll want to regain it. Making sure we put our best foot forward is absolutely right. We're delighted that Andrew's put his hat in the ring. Good on him, and looking forward to working with him.

SIMON LAUDER: Minister, great to talk to you this morning. Thanks very much for your time.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Terrific, thanks.