Page 291 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 December 2008
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not only cover the setting of an appropriate target but also include the design of policies and programs to enable Canberrans to reduce their greenhouse gas impact.
In Canberra, we have a high level of awareness of climate change, but people want to know more about the role they can play in tackling this challenge of truly global dimensions. We want to see more Canberrans generating renewable energy. We as a government are implementing a feed-in tariff that will be in place by March next year to promote that. The government is also implementing its election commitment of bulk purchasing photovoltaic cells to bring down the cost of adding solar power to individual homes.
Households, the private sector and government will have increasingly interrelated roles in the move to higher levels of renewable energy. Renewable energy will be a central plank in helping the ACT community to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction targets. At a national level, the release of the commonwealth government’s white paper on the carbon pollution reduction scheme in 2008 will outline the final design of that scheme and the medium-term target range for reducing Australia’s carbon pollution.
A key question for this inquiry is the extent to which the ACT government should move beyond the commonwealth’s targets and initiatives. We need to focus on what the ACT government can effectively influence to contribute to a real reduction in Australia’s emissions. We want programs and policies that have goals that integrate with the work of the commonwealth and other jurisdictions but are not necessarily constrained by the approach adopted by the commonwealth.
The new Committee on Environment, Climate Change and Water will help support the Assembly to make these difficult decisions. They will be complex matters, and it will need to undertake significant work in grappling with this complex issue.
I highlight that the proposal also recognises the need to contribute to a safe climate outcome. The evolving and emerging view amongst many scientists is that we can talk a lot about targets but ultimately the outcome is to achieve a level that provides us with a safe climate: a safe climate that does not put in jeopardy or undermine our ability to maintain existing ecosystems; a safe climate that does not jeopardise our ability to have reliable food, water and energy supplies; and a safe climate that does not contribute to social disintegration and lack of social cohesion.
I think that paragraph (1)(d) of the proposed resolution is in many respects the most important, because the issue of a safe climate will drive all of our thinking. Whether the target is at X level or Y level, unless it achieves a safe climate outcome, we will not be achieving the outcomes that we want.
The government recognises, as a result of the election, the broadening scientific consensus and the community understanding and acceptance of the significance of this issue, that we must work harder and faster to address the issue of climate change in our community. We are only a small jurisdiction, and our emissions as a percentage of the country overall, let alone the globe, are small. But we do have the ability to make a difference, and we do have the ability, more importantly, to show leadership. I think that is the challenge for this Assembly, for this territory and for our community—to show leadership.
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