Page 1614 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 June 2021
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We are working towards energy efficient buildings, changing fossil fuel gas over to electricity and reducing transport emissions. From individuals, to corporations, to communities, to this government, many of us are doing our part to reduce our demand on fossil fuels; but we also need to phase out fossil fuel supply and we need to do it fast. We must have a robust international treaty on the supply side, and we must help people through these changes.
A fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty could keep large swathes of fossil fuel in the ground. It would start with an assessment of existing reserves and an agreement about how we phase-down production. It would align fossil fuel use with Paris agreement targets. It would help the poorest countries get through this difficult phase and help give them energy independence.
The proposed treaty would be modelled on the three key pillars, the first pillar being non-proliferation. This is an agreement not to exploit any new fossil fuel reserves. I understand this pillar well from my work in the climate activist movement. Rallies are really good at taking complex ideas and turning them into simple statements—we need to leave fossil fuel in the ground. We desperately need that first pillar right here in our own country. The Australia Institute recently released research showing that our federal government is subsidising fossil fuel by $10.3 billion each year. That is $19,686 every minute of every day, propping up an industry that is wrecking our climate.
The second pillar of the treaty is disarmament. That means phasing out fossil fuel infrastructure in a calm and orderly way. We are already well and truly running that second pillar in the ACT. The ACT Greens took a commitment to the last election to phase out fossil fuel gas by 2040. That plan was labelled by some as crazy last September, but I am pleased to say that closer examination has proven it to be the only sane course in a climate emergency.
We now have full government agreement to phase out all fossil fuel gas by 2045 at the very latest. There is actually no need to wait that long and we have already started the work now. Our government recently announced that it had overhauled plans for Whitlam to remove a proposed gas connection. The Molonglo commercial centre will be gas free, and I am looking forward to learning a lot about the transition away from fossil fuel gas from that project. Our new suburbs will not be connected to fossil fuel gas and will run on renewable electricity instead. It is really fantastic progress in less than a year and it shows how fast we can turn things around when we try.
The third pillar is peaceful use. This means financing low carbon alternatives through a global transition fund. The world is changing. We can lean in and create good change by getting off fossil fuel or we can passively sit back and wait for climate disaster and have the worst kind of change you ever imagined. Either way, the world is changing and we Greens do not want to leave anyone behind in that.
This third pillar is actually my favourite because it is where all the invention and the green jobs kick in. We are going to find new ways to do things, and there are so many opportunities. I know from personal experience as a green entrepreneur that we will
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