COP26: Scott Morrison pledges more climate cash, but dodges new 2030 target

Fijian president Frank Bainimarama described Mr Morrison's promises as "a start", but said Australia should commit to halving emissions this decade.

World leaders took to the stage at the COP26 conference in Glasgow overnight amid a warning from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that countries were "digging our own graves" with their addiction to fossil fuels.

"Our addiction to fossil fuels is pushing humanity to the brink," Mr Guterres said. "We face a stark choice: Either we stop it, or it stops us."

The UN summit has been billed as the "last best hope" to keep within reach the ambition of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels.

Mr Morrison used his speech to set out how science and technology would help Australia achieve its fresh commitment to achieve zero emissions by 2050.

The Prime Minister strengthened his language around Australia's 2030 ambitions, saying emissions "will" fall by 35 per cent on 2005 levels.

However, Mr Morrison is refusing to adopt that figure as a formal target, sticking by the Coalition's Tony Abbott-era commitment of cutting carbon pollution by 26-28 per cent.

Mr Morrison, who unveiled the government's net zero roadmap before jetting off to Europe late last week, told the conference that technology was the solution to decarbonising economies.

"It will be our scientists, our technologists, our engineers, our entrepreneurs, our industrialists and our financiers that will actually chart the path to net zero," Mr Morrison said.

"And it is up to us as leaders of governments to back them in.

"Technology will have the answers to a decarbonised economy, particularly over time. And achieve it in a way that does not deny our citizens, especially in developing economies, their livelihoods or the opportunity for a better quality of life."

Mr Morrison used the forum to announce an extra $500 million in international climate finance for developing nations in the Asia-Pacific, taking Australia's commitment to $2 billion over the next five years.

Funding to Pacific countries to help drive investment in low-emissions technology and support infrastructure projects would grow to at least $700 million, Mr Morrison said.

The Morrison government also announced a new agreement with Fiji as part of its plan to establish a carbon offsets scheme in the region.

The Pacific island nation's president posted on social media that Australia's promises were a "start".

But he wanted Australia to set out a concrete plan to dramatically increase its 2030 target - a move Mr Morrison and Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor have repeatedly ruled out.

Fronting reporters in Glasgow, Mr Morrison conceded Pacific leaders asked Australia to adopt higher 2030 targets each time they spoke to him.

Mr Morrison insisted Pacific leaders understood that technology was the solution to cut emissions.

He said he hoped the COP26 summit would be an "inflection point" where global attention shifted to the "how" of tackling climate change.

Chief Climate Councillor Tim Flannery said Mr Morrison was failing to grasp the urgent need to slash emissions this decade.

"The key message was encapsulated in two words in his speech: 'over time'. The Australian way will 'over time' deliver us next zero," he said, with reference Mr Morrison's speech.

"The one thing that we're short of is time. It is the one thing that we don't have."

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