Page 4034 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 30 November 2022
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act or a government policy or practice, if the minister reasonably believes an amendment is necessary to achieve the objects of the act.
The role of adaptation throughout the act was made more prominent in the bill, as is consistent with the objects of the act. This was important as we know the existing amounts of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere have locked in some level of climate change, which necessitates that climate action involves not only mitigation activities but also adaptation activities.
The Climate Change Council’s membership required more expertise than is currently listed by the legislation. Previously, the council has not fully harnessed the value of knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It was important to be able to formalise this value and embed this into legislation.
This bill has a positive impact on the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Amending the council membership to include an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person increases the opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation and the promotion of the interests of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in decision-making processes related to climate change policy.
Despite the sector agreements not having been utilised since the act’s establishment, the changes were minor and are aimed to help encourage their use in the future if needed. We want to keep a number of tools available to encourage community and private sector engagement in emissions reduction activities.
I am proud to be the minister in charge of undertaking the 10-year review of the act and turning the results of the review into the amendment bill presented here. The bill represents only minor updates to an act that has enabled successful policy development and outcomes for the ACT since 2010.
There are further amendments to be made to this act, but they are a separate issue. The Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Natural Gas Transition) Amendment Bill 2022 was presented on 4 August this year, as members will recall. This bill, pertaining to our government’s recent announcement to prepare Canberra to electrify in order to transition away from the use of fossil fuel gas by 2045, will be debated separately. I flag here, to be very clear, that there are the two separate bills before the Assembly at the moment.
The amendments discussed today focus the ACT on continuing its action on climate change through the ambitious and world-leading targets we set, and the open and transparent monitoring and reporting we undertake on these targets. The amendments continue to enable us to develop nation-leading policies and programs to meet these targets alongside private entities, who we encourage to take action to address climate change.
I think it is fair to reflect that the ACT has been very successful so far. As our greenhouse gas inventories have shown, we have met the 2020 target. We are on track to go beyond that—we have seen the more recent inventories—and I will release a new inventory in the coming weeks. We have made significant progress. These amendments today go to the process side of how we do that. They continue to
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