News Analysis: Abbott's "pathetically inadequate" emissions target leaves Australia behind pack

The Australian government's decision to target a 26-percent emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 means Australia will lag firmly behind other leading nations in reducing carbon emissions.

Tony Abbott's Liberal government agreed on the targeted reduction on Tuesday, their goal considerably less ambitious than other developed nations which include Britain and Germany.

Instead, the government has chosen to align its target closely with Japan's - which has a target of 25 percent reduction by 2030 - and Canada's, while shutting the door on matching the greener targets set by Britain, the United States and Germany, which range from 40 percent up to 48 percent.

The United States has publicly outlined a reductions target of 26 percent but, crucially, by 2025.

That means by maintaining its yearly reduction target of 2.3 percent by 2030, it would have reduced carbon emissions by 41 percent at the same time Australia has reduced greenhouse gases by just 26 percent.

Canada, which has an economy strongly driven by minerals and resources - much like Australia, has already offered similar targets to Australia, however exerts were quick to label Canada's target of 30 percent - 4 percent higher than Australia's aim - as overly "weak."

An Australian climate council has already slammed Abbott's targets as well behind the rest of the world. The Climate Institute's CEO, John Connor, told the media on Tuesday that a 26- percent target was "pathetically inadequate" and a "big fail," meaning Australia would remain the "highest per capita emitter in the world."

Connor said Australia had the scope to be bolder with its emissions targets, telling local media outlets the Abbott government has simply chosen not to.

In addition, the government's own climate change body recommended reduction targets of 40-60 percent - a daring aim which would have made Australia one of the first-world leaders for cutting emissions.

However, the decision to aim for just 26 percent only further highlights Abbott's apparent neglect for the environment, something which has in the past and could further hurt his ratings in the polls.

Last month, he cut funding to Australia's burgeoning renewable energy sector, instead to focus on "new technologies," while simultaneously approving what would have been Australia's largest and most productive coal mine.

The government's decision to approve the Adani mine was rebuked by the Federal Court last week, with the courts alleging the government had failed to recognize the environmental impact of the mine.

Interestingly, the government's own climate change skeptics labeled the 26-percent target "too high," with Liberal MP Dennis Jensen saying Australia's economy could be damaged if, as an emissions-intensive nation, it drastically reduced the emissions target.

But at the other end of the spectrum, climate change experts have said the world needs to limit global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius above levels recorded before the industrial revolution.

In order for that to occur, Australia would have to reduce its emissions by up to 60 percent by 2030, according to the Climate Change Authority.

Instead, Abbott and his government has chosen to lead Australians down a path which would make them the highest emitter of carbon emissions, per capita, in the world by 2030.

Abbott will present his policy to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change when leaders from 200 nations and regions meet in Paris to discuss the 2-degree target later this year. Endi