Page 299 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 December 2016
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conference at Marrakech. Australia ratified the Paris climate agreement in November this year, joining over 100 nations committed to keep the planet at well below a two degrees Celsius rise in the average temperature.
The ACT government has been, and continues to be, a strong supporter of renewable energy, placing us in the lead both nationally and internationally. But we have an even bigger, broader vision for our territory as an export-orientated hub for renewable energy, innovation and investment, to drive the development of a more diverse, creative and vibrant ACT economy.
Our renewables auction process is delivering renewable electricity to ACT households at the lowest possible price, but it is also delivering much more to Canberrans. It is creating new research opportunities in battery storage and integration at the ANU and a new trades training program related to renewable energy at the Canberra Institute of Technology. It is attracting national and international companies to our territory and it is expanding the commercial horizons for companies already here. An estimated $500 million is being invested into the local economy.
We are also creating jobs through this investment. Over the past five years, renewable energy related jobs have grown six times faster in the ACT than in any other state or territory in the country and 12 times faster than the national average. Unfortunately, however, our federal government is letting us down. Its actions and inactions are inconsistent with the goals set out in the Paris climate agreement and the need to transition to net zero emissions by 2050. They are also inconsistent with the science that shows that we need to stop burning fossil fuels to avoid dangerous climate change.
The Adani Carmichael coalmine will be twice as big as the entire geographical area of Paris, an interesting but important analogy given the Paris climate agreement. It will produce over 4.7 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases when it becomes operational. It is a project that flies in the face of very clear climate science advice that says that we cannot afford to burn any more of the world’s fossil fuel reserves if we want to prevent dangerous global warming. The cumulative emissions related to this mine over its lifetime are amongst the highest in the world for any individual project. Whilst the burning of coal would not fall within Australia’s national greenhouse accounts, the magnitude of the annual emissions associated with the burning of coal would be equivalent to approximately three times Australia’s annual emissions reduction target of five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.
While the burning of the coal would not occur within Australia, the effects of these additional emissions into the atmosphere will be felt by all Australians. Climate change does not happen just in another country or just where emissions are made. We are feeling the effects now and here in Canberra and we will feel them into the future. This is why the Carmichael coalmine is also our problem. That is why we oppose any federal government financial support for the Carmichael mine.
In the absence of appropriate national action, smaller jurisdictions—cities, states and regions—are required to do more to address the challenges of global warming. Not only are cities and regions the stage for many of the actions that we need to take, such as building sustainable zero emission cities, but some national governments have
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