Bernie Fraser's seven-year stint as former Reserve Bank governor would have left him with precise analytic skills and a thick hide.

With the release of the draft report on Australia's carbon emissions reductions – which examined the potential for raising the 2020 goal to 15 or 25 per cent of 2000 levels from a minimum 5 per cent – it's possible indifference to vitriol might come in more handy of the two traits.

5 per cent emissions target already a big ask: Bernie Fraser. Credit:Penny Bradfield

The current 5 per cent target "is already a big ask" for business, declared Australian Industry Group's Chief Executive Innes Willox. Deeper cuts are merely “pie in the sky without an economically responsible plan to reach them".

To be sure, even those willing to pay a price to limit carbon emissions will wonder at the authority's estimates of how easy it will be to triple - or quintuple - the goal.