Page 2797 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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In closing, I commend Dr Bourke’s motion supporting the ACT government’s efforts to move to renewable sources of energy such as the capital wind farm and Royalla solar farm.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Higher Education and Minister for Regional Development) (11.54): I am pleased to rise in support of Dr Bourke’s motion, and I speak to the amendment as well.
We know that the public accepts that climate change is real; that the great majority of the Canberra community, some 80 per cent, want to see action; and that we must transition to renewable energy sources and away from polluting fossil fuel based energy sources. The government is proud of the steps we have taken to achieve this and the significant achievements to date.
As Dr Bourke and Minister Corbell have explained, these include our target of 90 per cent renewable energy by 2020; the recent opening of the 20 megawatt Royalla Solar Farm, the largest of its kind in Australia; ambitious plans for wind power, including the current wind auction; and tapping the enormous scientific expertise developing renewable energy technologies here in Canberra. This government’s renewable energy policies are stimulating growth of local renewable energy businesses and research partnerships that will underpin the development of the next generation of technology.
But we also know that what we are doing here in the ACT is part of a much larger global story, where a growing number of jurisdictions and nation-states are taking similar measures in renewable investment and in carbon pricing.
According to the World Bank, 39 national jurisdictions and 23 subnational jurisdictions internationally have implemented or are about to implement carbon pricing regimes. In 2013 carbon pricing regimes began in eight new countries; and with the world’s two largest emitters, China and the USA, now hosting carbon pricing regimes, there is emerging optimism that most of the world will embrace both carbon pricing and strong greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Meanwhile, the world’s largest carbon market, managed by the 27 members of the European Union, has recently strengthened its greenhouse target. In 2014, around 144 countries have renewable energy targets, and 138 countries have renewable energy support programs.
Developing and emerging countries have led the renewable energy target country count expansion in recent years, with the number growing from 15 in 2005 to 95 by early 2014. China, which currently generates 17 per cent of its electricity from renewables, aims to generate 20 per cent of its electricity from renewables by 2015, and the EU as a whole aims to generate 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The systems operating in these countries are not perfect, but they are vital economic architecture, a first step to a much more sustainable future.
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