Page 4605 - Week 12 - Thursday, 15 October 2009
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A national adaptation program must be put in place and renewed every five years to address the most pressing climate change risk to the UK. The UK government has the power to require public authorities and statutory bodies—companies like water and energy utilities—to report on how they have assessed the risks of climate change to their work and what they are doing to address these risks. I believe there is strong merit in this approach for the ACT and I have asked my department to give further consideration to the development of climate change risk assessment legislation for the territory.
The sixth insight is that cities are fundamental to success. Cities are critical to the success of the global effort to fight climate change. Today, more than 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas where up to 80 per cent of all energy is consumed. By 2030 two-thirds of humanity will live in cities. Fast growing cities and developing countries are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As Australia’s only significant inland city, Canberra is particularly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. We rely on other jurisdictions for the great majority of our energy requirements and options for securing our water supply are more limited than coastal cities.
Cities are also fundamental to delivering solutions and I saw much evidence that cities across the world are already making real gains often in advance of national governments. This is partly because a number of human activities that are typically facilitated directly within the urban context, such as energy saving and urban transport, are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and to climate change. Therefore, mitigation will massively influence patterns of use in the urban context making it, at a very practical level, a significant urban activity.
Increasingly, it is recognised that cities, local and regional authorities play a critical role in designing and implementing energy and infrastructure guidelines, investment promotion and consumer awareness campaigns necessary to combat and address climate change. I have already mentioned Copenhagen. It is a good demonstration of what cities can do. It has reduced CO2 emissions by more than 20 per cent over the last 10 years. It has a suite of other impressive outcomes which I am sure members will be familiar with.
My experience overseas simply confirmed my view that Canberra is ideally placed, of all Australian cities, to be the benchmark of sustainability—especially in showing the way to a realistic and low carbon future. I found support for this vision everywhere I went but particularly in the German city of Freiburg. Freiburg has a number of strong similarities with Canberra.
Firstly, it is a small to medium-sized city, about 225,000 residents. It is set in a relatively low density region—for Western Europe. It has no heavy industry or manufacturing and it is a knowledge-based and service economy. It has a large and well-credentialed university. Its greenhouse gas emissions profile is very similar to that of Canberra. Roughly 75 per cent of energy used is for heating and cooling buildings with the balance being in transport. It has a progressive and reformist government. It has an aware, well-educated and committed population and it has relatively high solar radiation.
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