Australia’s biggest businesses are pleading for bipartisan climate policy as the government prepares to announce its newest emissions reduction pledge, while warning an overly ambitious target would cost half a trillion dollars in a decade.

The Business Council of Australia, which represents more than 100 of the nation’s largest firms, has released a report from consulting firm McKinsey & Company arguing that up to $150 billion in gas and coal exports would be cut each year if Labor tried to reduce emissions by 70 per cent by 2035. Climate groups are privately critical of the McKinsey report.

Australians would need to buy more electric vehicles, and airlines would have to use more sustainable fuels, the modelling shows, and nearly 60,000 new workers would be needed by 2030 to build proje

See Full Page