Page 4050 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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to happen across this sector. I think it is a very good thing that Marymead won this tender.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Smyth?
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, why were the three categories not offered a separate request for tender?
MS BURCH: We approached it because there were three streams of discrete work but, as I said before, all were built into a process of working with the sector about what was the best fit. It was an open tender, so indeed organisations could tender for all or they could tender for one part thereof. The result is that we have one part tendered to a well-regarded organisation.
Environment—climate change
MS PORTER: My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water. Minister, can you please advise the Assembly what steps the government is taking to meet the challenge of climate change?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Porter for the question. Obviously, today the government has taken an important step forward in establishing targets for greenhouse gas reduction in our city to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and to achieve a reduction in emissions of 40 per cent by the year 2020.
Of course, our target is based on the scientific evidence; it is based on the advice of groups such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has clearly stated that, to avoid dangerous climate change, global temperatures must not rise by more than two degrees, and that for developed countries, this means a reduction in our emissions of 40 per cent by the year 2020 to keep total greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere to no more than 450 parts per million.
This is the basis on which we make our target. Any other target does not have full regard to the science, and any other target does not have full regard to the findings and the recommendations of the Assembly committee which recommended a 40 per cent reduction by the year 2020.
The government understands that we must take action on this issue. Climate change affects each of us. The legislation that I have tabled today provides for a robust framework for reporting and accountability to this place. It sets out mechanisms whereby we will be able to table each and every year a report that details our emissions profile, how we are tracking in terms of our targets, and what are the reasons for variations in the overall emissions level.
But also and most importantly it establishes a framework for action and cooperation with the broader community, because this is not a target that can be achieved by the government alone. It must be achieved across the economy. The way to do that is to engage with the private sector, to engage with the community sector, to engage with the transport sector, the accommodation sector and the private office accommodation sector and see them enter into voluntary agreements, sectoral agreements, as outlined
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