Page 1184 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 April 2019
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reductions. And why not? It is because of this Labor government and the leadership of former minister Simon Corbell, along with our Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, that our city will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy.
Our leadership extends beyond just renewable energy. Many of our climate achievements have taken place under the stewardship of this Labor government. And this is because we recognise that economic growth and environment protection are not mutually exclusive. We recognise that you can protect our bush capital, our parks and reserves while growing our city. We support growth because this delivers well-paying, secure jobs, ensuring that all Canberrans are better able to share in our city’s prosperity.
This Labor government’s leadership on climate change also extends to adaptation. The reality is that while we must take and make all efforts to reduce emissions there is some warming that has already been locked in, and global warming that will bring changes to our climate. I would invite all members to look at the comprehensive adaptation strategy that was launched by Mr Corbell in 2016 titled ACT climate change adaptation strategy.
Consistent with this strategy, to prepare our city for the changes that are already occurring, the government is taking a range of actions. The impact of climate change on water security and our catchments has also been considered in the ACT’s water resource plan. This plan provides a mechanism to meet future water security and environmental needs in a drying climate. We are developing a suite of water efficiency projects which will see the ACT reduce our water use.
The projects being considered include infrastructure renewal and maintenance, water sensitive standards and planning codes, stormwater harvesting and reuse, demand management and education and practice change, and proportion of sustainable development. This work builds on the 20 healthy waterways projects currently being implemented across the ACT with the long-term objectives to improve water quality, provide local amenity and cooling living infrastructure and reduce the number of occurrences of blue green algal blooms occurring in our lakes.
A key approach to enable biodiversity to adapt to a changing climate is to ameliorate the impact of existing threats including invasive species. The ACT is investing over $2 million annually in the control and management of invasive species. Our action plans for threatened species and communities, for example the woodlands strategy and bogs and fens action plan, consider climate change and identify actions to support management of these areas under a range of climate scenarios.
The ACT government is also undertaking work to identify climate refugia in the ACT. These are areas that remain relatively buffered from contemporary climate change over time and enable the persistence of valued physical, ecological and socio-cultural resources. Identifying these areas means that we can target investment to ensure that the values are not impacted by other threats like invasive species. These strategies allow the government to promote the conservation of our natural environment for future generations.
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