Greg Hunt describes analysts' focus on expected rise in emissions as 'desperate'

Environment minister says accounting rules allowing Australia to claim a 5% decrease are 'global gold standard', designed so nations aim to overachieve

Focusing on the fact that Australia's actual greenhouse emissions are set to increase by 2020 is "one of the oddest and strangest and I've got to say ... desperate arguments", says the environment minister, Greg Hunt, because under internationally accepted accounting rules Australia is allowed to claim a 5% decrease.

In the lead-up to the United Nations meeting in Paris next week, Hunt announced that Australia had already met its 2020 greenhouse emissions reduction target in large part due to overshooting its first lenient target and "carrying over" the excess to count towards its pledge to reduce emissions by 5%.