Page 567 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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action, scientists tell us that by 2017 we will be locked into catastrophic temperature rises. Extreme weather events will increase in frequency and severity and daily temperature extremes will become commonplace. By 2050 one million species are expected to be extinct and one billion people will face freshwater shortages. By the end of the century, late Arctic summer ice will have disappeared.
In Australia we stand to lose our precious coral reefs and up to 85 per cent of our alpine snow cover. Our net agricultural productivity will drop by at least six per cent, and our senior citizens will be 20 per cent more likely to die from temperature extremes or vector-borne disease. Storm tides, tropical cyclones, peak electricity demand and infrastructure maintenance costs will all rise and, under the worst forecast, we could lose up to all the habitat for our vertebrate species.
Whilst it will take a concerted effort to turn this situation around, requiring military-scale expenditure, the implications—economic, social and environmental—of inaction are simply not something that anyone would want to see happen. Each year we fail to act costs us and our children more—five to 20 per cent of global GDP more by 2060, according to Nicholas Stern.
Whilst the scale of ambition required to lick this problem is enormous, there are signs of hope and courage that we can look for when forging our own pathways to sustainability. In the developed world Scotland plans to meet 100 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy by 2020. It has already exceeded its 2011 target by 31 per cent and it has cut its emissions by 21 per cent since 1990.
California is investing $2.2 billion in the rollout of more than 3,000 megawatts of solar powered electricity. In Denmark 19 per cent of the national energy needs are supplied by the wind, and in Sweden emissions are on the decline. In the developing world the Maldives has committed to become carbon neutral by 2020 and in Bhutan native forests are capturing more carbon than the country emits in all of its sectors put together. These examples are just some in a broader narrative of countries and communities doing what it takes to ensure a safer, cleaner future.
In the ACT, stationary energy makes up 71 per cent of our emissions—31 per cent of this is from the residential sector, 40 per cent from the commercial sector, 23 per cent from transport and only three per cent from waste. The Planning and Development Act 2007 governs development in the ACT, and thus it influences a large proportion of the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The ACT Greens believe the ACT government planning and development decisions should take climate change and greenhouse gas emissions into account at an early stage of urban planning to ensure that the city and suburbs are laid out and planned in ways which will allow for minimal greenhouse gas emissions.
If we are going to address greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective way, we must make sure that all future development in the ACT is consistent with our reduction targets. The built environment is generally long lived, and any new buildings we build commit us to emissions for decades to come. We make our greenhouse gas emission targets unachievable if we build inefficient houses and infrastructure. And this will
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