Page 4452 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 30 October 2018
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global audience about the ACT’s world-leading commitment to 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2020 and the progress we have made towards reaching this target. I also spoke about the next steps for the ACT after reaching 100 per cent renewable electricity, primarily reducing emissions from the transport and energy sector, and our goal of zero net emissions by 2045.
In recognition of the leadership role that the ACT is taking in reducing reliance on coal and other fossil fuels, I was invited to speak during a plenary session of the summit about the Powering Past Coal Alliance. I officially announced that the ACT was joining the global initiative and commented on how joining the alliance fits with our climate change commitments. Powering Past Coal Alliance members are committed to sharing their skills, experience and best practices in support of an international effort to phase out coal power generation. It was a privilege to have representatives from Spain, the UK, the USA and the Netherlands, as well as Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, join me on stage.
On the final day of the summit, I co-hosted a zero carbon cities affiliate event to the main summit event with the Mayor of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg. The purpose of the event was to bring together mid-sized cities to discuss the barriers and opportunities in developing and implementing strong, enduring climate action.
During the affiliate event, I signed a carbon zero cities declaration along with the Mayor of Sacramento. This declaration expresses a shared commitment to work together to tackle climate change, including by exchanging knowledge and actively pursuing policies to become carbon zero cities. I am looking forward to continuing to work with Sacramento and other cities to assist the ACT in meeting our zero net emissions target by 2045.
At our affiliate event there was strong interest in the continued collaboration between mid-sized cities on addressing climate change. I will be focused on expanding these initial contacts into a more active partnership over the coming months, to ensure that the ACT is better placed to deliver on its own objectives and mid-sized cities are further strengthened in their efforts to take action on climate change.
To sum up, the trip to both the Zero Emission Vehicle Summit and the Global Climate Action Summit was very beneficial to progressing the ACT government’s objectives. Firstly, I shared with a number of different audiences the ACT’s strong climate change commitments, demonstrating our continued global leadership on this issue. Secondly, I strengthened connections with other governments, organisations and key stakeholders, as a base to build stronger collaboration, sharing of best practice and staying up to date with the latest innovations. Thirdly, I had the opportunity to learn lessons from other jurisdictions and organisations on how they are progressing with reducing emissions which can be used to improve our climate change work here in the territory. Finally, I had the opportunity to investigate interesting policies in the mental health space being implemented in the UK which may have valuable application here in the territory.
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