No room for renegotiation on carbon emissions target announced by Australia at the Paris talks: Julie Bishop

New developments at the Paris talks on climate change, which began on Monday, are sweeping concerns across the coalition backbenches. However, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop stood by the government’s stance at the Paris conference, saying there cannot be any renegotiation on the emissions reduction target.

At the UN-led meeting on climate change, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the world leaders that Australia would set the carbon emissions reduction target at 26 to 28 percent by 2030, keeping options open for a review in five years.

Meanwhile, the decision of the prime minister is facing criticisms from the back bench. Liberal MP Dennis Jensen said that Turnbull should stand by the decision taken in the party room.

"I will certainly be very strong on the fact that we should not change those targets and that we stick with what we agreed [in] the party room and we don't change," the ABC quoted Jensen as saying. "If there's discussion about it a couple of years' in the future, don't change it again."

Bishop said the government is not going to roll over talks on the targets but it has kept the option open for a review within 2020.

There are also internal concerns over an agreement that would require the governments signing the statement to do away with subsidies on diesel fuel. Bishop said that Australia did not sign up the agreement as the country is party to a similar G20 agreement and since certain paragraphs in it could not be negotiated on time, Australia had to refrain from signing the statement.

“We were already party to a G20 agreement on this and there were some paragraphs in the proposal from New Zealand that caused us some concerns and they couldn't be negotiated in time so we didn't sign up for it,” she told ABC’s AM program. “But we are already part of a similar agreement with the G20 so I think that we've covered that ground anyway.”

The disagreement within the party ranks led opposition leader Tanya Plibersek indicate it as fresh signs of divisions within the federal government.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.