At the moment, we have a situation where the government is only backing a 26-28 per cent reduction in electricity emissions, whilst the opposition is saying it would immediately increase it to a 45 per cent reduction in government.

Nothing could be worse for Australia than an agreement to disagree. We must agree to have national policy consistent with the obligation we have to fellow planetary residents, to keep global warming at less than 2 degrees at the lowest economic cost possible.

There have been many reviews of how we address the transition to a lower emission future. None have suggested an emission reduction profile in the electricity sector as weak as the 26-28 per cent proposed by the Liberals with emissions from coal stations expected out until 2070.

Oliver Yates says the federal government needs to act with economic logic by supporting stronger emissions reductions in the electricity sector.

The Climate Change Authority, Climate Council, ClimateWorks and others have demonstrated that the electricity sector is the easiest and cheapest sector of the economy in which to achieve emissions reductions and therefore it must do much more than 26-28 per cent by 2030 and that all coal stations must close before 2050.