The government's sudden passion for climate technology is newfound and insincere | Simon Holmes a Court

The call for technology before action is a specious distraction designed to paper over the plan to take no action

If you're committed to the Paris agreement - to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees - then at a minimum, logically, scientifically, you're committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

So far, at least 77 countries have committed to the target, as has every state and territory in Australia. The fact that prime minister Scott Morrison is pushing back hard against the calls for such a target sends yet another strong signal that his government still denies the need to tackle climate change.