Page 256 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 7 March 2007
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be accurately estimated by multiplying the volume of the fuel consumed in a year for each fuel type by an emission factor. However, there are no official statistics that report on consumption of transport fuels in the ACT.
To address that—and it is very important that we address that—the ACT government is currently working to implement an amendment to the Environment Protection Act which is designed to ensure that we can collect ACT fuel sales data for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions within the ACT transport sector, having regard to the fact that it is such a significant source of emissions within the territory. That will assist us greatly in the implementation of the new climate change strategy.
The motion also refers to the adoption of targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions and strategies as outlined in the Kyoto protocol. The ACT government has stated regularly its commitment to the Kyoto principles, and we reiterate that commitment today. However, it is not for the ACT to adopt the Kyoto targets which are intended, I am sure everybody is aware, as national targets. It is simply not possible to translate the Kyoto targets to an ACT jurisdiction.
It is worth noting that the ACT is a small contributor to the global greenhouse gas emissions. We create one per cent of Australia’s emissions, and Australia contributes one per cent of global emissions. However, the ACT government and our community are ready to play their part in reducing emissions. In fact, it is vital that we do. All areas of the community have a collective responsibility to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. All areas of the community will be impacted directly by climate change, and each of us needs to have the capacity to adapt to these impacts.
In addition, the ACT government will undertake to advance the national policy debate and will lobby the commonwealth government for changes to address climate change. We will continue to petition for the ratification of the Kyoto protocol by the commonwealth government and for the adoption of a national target for emissions. As part of this process, the ACT recently joined with the state and territory governments in the Council of Australian Federation. We have, in fact, written to the governors of those US states that have, despite their national government’s refusal to ratify Kyoto, accepted the principles underlined in the protocol in the way that each of the Australian states and territories have. It is anticipated that this approach will establish a basis for international cooperation at a local level.
Community feedback from the consultation process of the climate change discussion paper was strongly in favour of ACT targets and there was support for the position put by the government for a target of 60 per cent reduction by 2050 as well as the interim targets. The ACT government will carefully consider this feedback and will address the issue of targets under the new climate change strategy which will, as I said before, be shortly considered by cabinet. ACT targets will be consistent with and support those developments regionally and nationally. In that way our targets will contribute to national greenhouse emission reductions.
The motion also deals with the issue of mandatory renewable energy targets. In April 2001, the commonwealth established a mandatory renewable energy target through the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act. The target has been achieved several years early, and further progress has been resisted by the commonwealth. Since then, the
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