Mr Combet’s expert panel’s longer term advice is even more ambitious, calling for cuts of up to 60 per cent by 2030, more than twice the target being pursued by the federal government. Loading The stark difference in climate policies between the states and the Commonwealth has been the subject of ferocious debate during the bushfires crisis with calls for tougher national action to bring down the nation’s carbon pollution levels, while others pointed to failed hazard reduction and arson as key contributors. But Victoria’s government, which says it is leading the nation on battling global warming, has no appetite for a direct confrontation with the Morrison government on the issue, with Premier Daniel Andrews and his colleagues not prepared to risk the Commonwealth’s co-operation on bushfire recovery. All of the states have a goal of completely decarbonising their economies within 31 years but the Commonwealth has been steadfast in its policy of reducing emissions by up to 28 per cent by 2030 in line with the Paris climate-change agreement, with no longer term goal.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor told The Age on Thursday that the Commonwealth government was working with the states and territories to bring down emissions through the $2 billion Climate Solutions Fund. State Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has confirmed that new Victorian five-year ‘interim targets’ will be set, as required by legislation, by the end of March, but did not answer questions on the performance of the federal government in battling climate change. “Our interim targets will be released in line with our legislative requirements,” a spokesperson for Ms D’Ambrosio said. Greg Combet, Victoria's main advisor on emission targets, says the bushfire crisis has sharpened the focus on climate change. Cuts of the size envisaged by state’s government’s advisors will bring the future of Victoria’s giant coal burning power stations into question with the electricity generation plants releasing more than 40 per cent of the state’s greenhouse pollution.

Mr Combet led an expert panel which advised Victoria to set a target of between 32 and 39 per cent by 2025 with even deeper cuts, of up to 60 per cent, flagged by 2030. The former union leader told The Age that the “empirical data is undeniable” that the extent of the bushfires were linked to the warmer and drier conditions caused by climate change. “All of this has been predicted so, it’s not surprising,” he said. Mr Combet said policy settings needed to achieve such targets were a matter for the government but that the electricity sector with its large coal-burning power stations and the forestry industry would be key, with less land clearing and more tree planting probably needed. Mr Combet said the emissions cuts recommended by his panel, which the Environment Minister is legally bound to consider, represented the quickest and easiest way to get to the government’s legally mandated positions of net zero emissions by 2050.