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Australia has sent Energy Minister Angus Taylor to the final days of a climate summit in Spain, where senior figures from around the world are likely to look at him in dismay.

That’s because while much of the east coast burns and Sydney chokes on dangerous levels of smoke, Mr Taylor’s mission is to keep open a loophole that allows the government to fudge the numbers on emission reduction targets.

“It’s a loophole that allows for some clever accounting and makes it easy for Australia to hit its Paris targets, and which its banking on doing most of the work and heavy lifting,” Richie Merzian, director of the Climate and Energy Program at think tank The Australia Institute, explained to news.com.au.

“That loophole is now in jeopardy because a draft decision is being considered to close it. And so, Angus Taylor will be lobbying to keep it open.”

The climate expert, who’s in Spain for the summit this week, said years of inaction and empty claims of progress made Australia something of a laughing stock.

“When you talk to some Europeans, they look at Australians like they’re from a different planet,” Mr Merzian said.

“They cannot comprehend how a country can literally be on fire and admit the fire emergency is unprecedented, its experts knowing that climate change exacerbates and supercharges fires, and at the same time and in the same breath lobby for special consideration to do as little as possible on climate action.

“It beggars belief. In some corners, Australia is seen as being totally disconnected from reality.”

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The issue of climate change has become extremely polarised and politicised in Australia, but that’s not the norm globally, Mr Merzian said.

“Yes, there are places, like Australia and the United States, where the climate discussion is highly ideological and people are divided and this is seen as an issue for one side of politics,” Mr Merzian said.

“But those places are in the minority. The majority of countries – not just Europe, but a number of developing countries – are committed to tackling the causes and impacts of climate change.”

Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared that the country was on track to meet and likely exceed the emission reduction targets set by the Paris agreement.

But without that loophole, the stark reality of the situation would be clear, Mr Merzian said.

“Australia is so far off achieving anything meaningful,” he said.

“Emissions continue to trend upwards. They have been since Australia dismantled its working Emissions Trading Scheme.

“The ETS reduced Australia’s emissions by 2 per cent nationally whilst growing the economy by 5 per cent. It did what it was designed to do – bring emissions down in an economically efficient way.

“Since then, we’ve seen emissions increase and the current climate policies that replaced the ETS fail.”

Before his current role, Mr Merzian spent a decade as the government’s negotiator in the UN climate process.

He described Australia’s current global credentials as “very poor”.

He pointed to a series of graphs that puts Australia’s standing among other developed and even developing nations into context.

For starters, it’s among one of five out of 32 OECD nations to see its emissions increase, placing it in an unwelcome minority.

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“When it comes to global rankings, when you look at all of the countries in the world, Australia is the 14th largest emitter out of 196 parties to the Paris agreement,” Mr Merzian continued.

“In terms of total emissions, we’re in the top 10 per cent globally.

“When the Prime Minister says Australia is only 1.3 per cent of global emissions … that’s fanciful. Australia is so high compared to the majority of other countries, per capita.

“But per capita aside, there are 40 countries with larger populations that have lower emissions than Australia does.”

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Over the past decade, most OECD countries have managed to curb emissions and put downward pressure on long-term trajectories.

“In Australia, which has had the luxury of taking its time to get this climate policy right, it has managed to bungle it multiple times and lose a decade worth of time,” he said.

The comment argument from opponents of climate action is that it’s pointless for Australia to act while the world’s big emitters – namely China – sit on their hands.

“Australia should spend a lot of time and effort to bring China onto a path where it’s willing to increase its efforts,” he said.

“Look at the EU as a good example – particularly Germany. Angela Merkel is hosting a special summit next September with China and EU leaders as a way of encouraging them to take on a more ambitious climate action pathway.

“At the same time, Germany is getting its own house in order and has set out a deadline and a plan to transition away from coal. Now it’s looking at how to help others take similar actions from a point of credibility.”

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