Page 2524 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 13 August 2014
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The government is also strongly focused on ensuring that it achieves carbon neutrality in its own operations by the year 2020. The government’s carbon neutral framework has delivered funding for projects worth over $6.2 million. The implementation of these projects has seen a dramatic reduction in electricity and resource consumption across all areas of government. It is another great example of the government implementing a program in relation to its own operations that it aspires to for the city as a whole.
This year the government will also pursue measures through the Environment Protection Authority to continue to monitor industry to ensure they meet their obligations under the Environment Protection Act. This is in terms of both the remediation of development sites where required and obligations on industry to carry out its activities in an environmentally responsible and sensitive way. We will continue to maintain a proactive approach to ensuring that risks to our environment are mitigated and, in the event of an incident, responses are quick and effective.
In the coming year the government will also strengthen governance arrangements in relation to water management. This will ensure the roles and responsibilities of all areas across government are clearly defined and coordinated. Together with the commonwealth contribution through the $85 million basin priority project, the ACT will work to build a thorough understanding of the issues affecting water quality in the ACT and how they can be best tackled. Once we have developed this comprehensive knowledge base, we will be in a position to put in place the necessary infrastructure to see improvements and tangible outcomes for water quality—both water flowing through the territory and across our border. All of this will have significant benefits for our community.
To assist in this work, the government has recently committed funding to ensure that the valuable community-based contribution of Waterwatch can continue. Waterwatch funding was cancelled by the federal Abbott government. The ACT government has maintained and replaced this funding cancellation to ensure that Waterwatch can continue to provide awareness on catchment health issues and host clean-up and planting events. The program regularly attracts over 160 volunteers from around the territory to assist in monitoring more than 200 sites.
I recently announced the development of an adaptation strategy for the ACT. This is an important element in meeting the challenges that climate change will have for the ACT and is a key element of action plan 2, the government’s climate change action plan to implement our greenhouse gas objectives. Consultation on this strategy will continue throughout 2014-15 and will provide a clear set of actions that will help protect ACT residents from the potential harmful impacts of a changing climate, such as increased vulnerability due to increasingly uncertain, unpredictable and severe weather events.
In 2014-15 we will also carry on work with the commonwealth government to deliver the caring for our country program. This program will deliver a number of projects across the ACT, including sustainable agriculture. It is being delivered by community partnerships such as catchment groups and Greening Australia.
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