Page 1104 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 28 March 2017
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additional Australian cities. Cairns was a particularly appropriate location to host the climate action round table as delegates were able to witness the staggering bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, and I will talk about this more in a moment.
At the most recent round table several outcomes were agreed at the ministerial level. These included recognition of the impacts of climate change already being felt in Australia, confirmation that a joint collaborative submission would be made to the 2017 national climate policy review and establishment of a senior officer working group to develop a forward work program. The key focus areas for the forward work program are an energy efficient built environment, the transition to renewable energy and opportunities for partnerships.
One of the benefits of this collaboration is that it allows different jurisdictions to focus their work on particular areas of emissions reductions policy and then to share the results. For example, the ACT agreed to lead progressive policy work on reducing emissions in the built environment.
The climate action round table is the alternative national voice on climate change action. We are inviting the Northern Territory and Western Australia to become members and thus increase the effectiveness of this group in achieving net zero emissions Australia, in spite of the lack of a coordinated and ambitious policy framework at the national level.
The round table also provides a platform for the ACT to demonstrate its leadership in addressing climate change. Several jurisdictions are interested in learning from the leading policy work we have taken on renewable energy. There are many ways that subnational governments can work together and progress action on climate change mitigation and adaptation. The municipal level is often where the rubber hits the road when it comes to climate change action.
As I said earlier, visiting Cairns to attend the round table also presented the opportunity to visit the Great Barrier Reef to survey the extent of damage it is suffering due to climate change. I would like to recount some of this to the Assembly as the plight of the reef provides a very clear example of the devastating impacts climate change will have, and is having, on our natural environment as well as on the economy.
Along with other delegates to the round table I visited both inner and outer parts of the reef off Cairns. We were accompanied by two ocean scientists from the University of Queensland who explained the process of coral bleaching and the severe detrimental impacts that warming oceans, caused by climate change, are having on reef ecosystems.
Although we saw parts of the reef that were healthy and still hosted extensive marine life we also saw whole fields of bleached, dying or dead coral. Contrary to the view of a certain federal senator who visited the reef recently and pretended that it was all healthy, there is clear evidence of the destruction. An enduring memory was the sight of large areas of white stag coral which, if healthy, would have been a bright blue colour. In some areas we saw only a few solitary pieces of blue coral amongst a whole landscape of white.
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