AIGN Policy Principles

Promoting sustainable industry development

Our Principles

It is of vital importance for long-term investment in the transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions that there is a long-term global climate change agreement based on common commitments.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change provides the foundation for international cooperation. Since the formation of the convention in 1992, Australia has been a significant contributor and AIGN acknowledges the importance of the convention in providing a forum for the international community to formulate common actions to address climate change. Importantly, including substantive participation and contribution from the business sector – including AIGN.

In December 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed by 198 countries, and it formalised a comprehensive global treaty to combat climate change. In this context, AIGN welcomes the growing commitments of the parties, individual corporations, and associations to the global goal of net zero by 2050 or sooner.

AIGN’s climate change policy principles establish a preferred framework for Australian policy development within this global context. In the domestic context, the principles envisage Australian policy measures that:

  • Are national
  • Recognise and respond to the scientific consensus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  • Are developed and implemented transparently to engender community support
  • Are stable, predictable and avoid complexity to help minimise investment uncertainty
  • Establish a long-term price signal across the whole economy
  • Do not expose Australian export- and import-competing industry to costs not faced by these industries in other countries
  • Promote public and private investment in low-emission technologies
  • Do not discriminate against early movers and new entrants
  • Encourage investment in adaptation and resilience strategies
Picture of a forest quote image

Adopting policies that meet these principles should deliver least-cost, environmentally effective, and equitable outcomes for Australia – and ultimately globally.

AIGN Climate Change Policy Principles

Australia should make an equitable contribution, in accordance with its differentiated responsibilities and respective capability, to global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to impacts of climate change.
Australia should engage the international community in pursuing identified and beneficial environmental outcomes through greenhouse gas emissions reduction action that:

  • Allows for differentiated national approaches
  • Promotes international cooperation
  • Minimises the costs and distributes the burden equitably across the international community
  • Is comprehensive in its coverage of countries, greenhouse gases, sources, and sinks
  • Recognises the economic and social circumstances and aspirations of all societies
  • Is underpinned by streamlined, efficient, and effective administrative, reporting, and compliance arrangements

In this global context, Australia should develop a strategic national approach to responding to climate change that:

  • Is consistent with the principles of sustainable development and other national policies, including economic growth, population growth, international trade, energy supply and demand, and environmental and social responsibility
  • Takes a long-term perspective
  • Maintains the competitiveness of Australian export and import-competing industries
  • Distributes the cost-burden equitably across the community
  • Adopts a consultative approach to the development of new policies
  • Is consistent and effectively coordinated across all jurisdictions throughout Australia

Australia should make an equitable contribution, in accordance with its differentiated responsibilities and respective capability, to global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to impacts of climate change.
Australia should engage the international community in pursuing identified and beneficial environmental outcomes through greenhouse gas emissions reduction action that:

  • Allows for differentiated national approaches
  • Promotes international cooperation
  • Minimises the costs and distributes the burden equitably across the international community
  • Is comprehensive in its coverage of countries, greenhouse gases, sources, and sinks
  • Recognises the economic and social circumstances and aspirations of all societies
  • Is underpinned by streamlined, efficient, and effective administrative, reporting, and compliance arrangements

Australia’s contribution to the global climate change effort as set out here reflects the principle in Article 3.1 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.