Page 1927 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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job is more than an income and that jobs in sustainable industries are essential for the long-term resilience and prosperity of the ACT economy.
As jobs built around renewable energy and green industries are generally more labour intensive than those built around conventional technologies or fossil fuels it is surprising that the spectre of job losses still manages to prevent action on climate change. In the ACT we can create more jobs by doing the right thing by the environment and the community than by any other course of action. The risk is that if we fail to act quickly enough we will lose these opportunities to other jurisdictions.
The green economy is the answer. Whether or not you believe that decoupling emissions from economic activity is enough or that we need to fundamentally change the way we use resources, low emissions industries will be the future drivers of the economy and will be the only way of delivering lasting prosperity to Canberra.
Australia has the highest per capita emissions of CO2 in the OECD. Our CO2 intensity, emissions per unit of GDP, is three times that of most developed nations and double that of other rich nations such as Brazil. The global economy is moving, and domestic economies that do not internalise the cost of carbon will soon be subject to tariffs. No longer will it be possible to pretend that we do not need to urgently address the problem.
Recently the chief economist and head of economic policy for AGL wrote an article describing Australia’s carbon-heavy economy as like a large superannuation fund that is heavily invested in a very small number of stocks that are now very exposed to significant risk. They concluded that the prudent thing for any fund manager to do is to gradually sell down their holdings in those shares and buy into decarbonised sectors and industries that will provide long-term sustainability.
This analogy could equally be applied to the ACT government because it is a trustee and manager of the community’s investment in the ACT economy. Currently the investment is very dependent on fossil fuel use, and transport infrastructure remains dedicated to cars at the expense of public and other sustainable transport options. We need to shift the weighting of our collective portfolio if we are to reach our ambitious climate targets.
The green economy is alive and well and mainstream across the globe. We have to actively participate now before we are left behind. Global leaders from Barack Obama to Nicholas Sarkozy have acknowledged this reality. Every developed economy faces almost exactly the same challenges and many are already ahead of us. For example, in response to the global economic crisis South Korea spent about 80 per cent of their stimulus package on green, sustainable initiatives, the EU 57 per cent and China 38 per cent. Australia spent just nine per cent.
In the ACT we have to be clever enough to find ways to transition without depending on the commonwealth government or the broader Australian economic settings. We need to foster industries that can participate in the process of transitioning our economy without depending on excessive material consumption or environmental degradation. We need public policy and government spending that give people skills
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