The independent Climate Change Authority has called for Australia to set tougher emissions reduction targets than the United States and Canada ahead of a global climate summit in Paris in December.
The authority, set up by Labor, issued its final report on Thursday on what Australia's post-2020 targets should be, which confirmed a set of draft recommendations it made in April.
It urged the Abbott government to take a lead among developed countries by setting strong targets of 30 per cent on 2000 levels by 2025 and 40 to 60 per cent by 2030.
If the government chooses to base its target on 2005 levels, that would equate to a 36 per cent reduction on 2005 levels by 2025.
When compared to other developed nations, the recommendations put Australia ahead of the US, which has a 26 to 28 per cent target by 2025 and well in front of Canada's 30 per cent target on 2005 levels by 2030.
They would place Australia roughly on par with Germany and Switzerland, but behind the United Kingdom
There has been rising speculation the Abbott government is exploring a target within the range of Canada and the US.
In pointed remarks, Climate Change Authority chair Bernie Fraser used a briefing on the report on Thursday to echo critics who have said Australia should do better than matching Canada, whose targets are weak if the world wants to try to avoid warming of 2 degrees.
"Canada is in the laggard class, frankly," Mr Fraser said.
"It's not hard to go above Canada. As far as the US is concerned, we think our recommendations are really comparable with what the US is proposing.
"Canada, while it may be a benchmark in the minds of some people for determining the appropriateness of Australia's targets, we've tried to be a bit more in the middle of the pack, rather than one end of the pack."
Much of the international focus on Australia has centred on its high level of per capita emissions, which are the largest of any country in the developed world.
The authority's targets, based on the period from 2005 to 2025, would require deep cuts on that front of 54 per cent per person.
This would be the highest cut of comparable developed countries by far.
China this week announced its plans to move toward a cleaner economy and cut pollution.
The country, which is responsible for nearly a quarter of global emissions, has said its emissions will peak in 2030, but it will try to reach that peak sooner.
Rather than setting an absolute emissions reduction target, China has set a target per unit of GDP of 60 to 65 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.
The target the authority has recommended for Australia would require a reduction in emissions intensity as a percentage of GDP of 65 per cent on 2005 levels by 2025.
In its report, the authority rejects criticism that the reductions proposed would impose too heavy a burden on certain emissions intensive industries.
The authority said it "is not persuaded by such arguments" and that its targets, while challenging were not "unrealistic".
Mr Fraser said on Thursday the authority's work was driven by the clear science of human-induced climate change, the global goal of avoiding 2 degrees of warming, and the need to set goals comparable to other developed nations.
He said the authority had tried to focus its report on the benefits of strong climate policy – avoiding the affects of catastrophic global warming, and jobs and economic growth brought by new industries – because too often the debate was bogged down in the costs of implementing new policies.
Mr Fraser said the conversation in Australia was such that "unfortunately one has to wonder sometimes how far or strong this belief [in the science] is."
"If people really believed the science, they really support the 2 degree goal, it would be pretty easy to get to the kind of targets we're suggesting," he said.
In response to the report, a spokeswoman for Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the government's targets, to be announced in weeks, would be ambitious.
"We will shortly announce Australia's post-2020 targets and we will make a strong, clear and ambitious contribution in Paris," he said.
"The government has consulted widely and carefully with the Australian community as part of this process.
"Australia has beaten our Kyoto I targets and we are on track to meet and beat our Kyoto II targets."
