Conducted against the backdrop of the Federal Governmentโs recent refusal to join 64 countries in a global pledge to save biodiversity and endangered specifies โ despite Australia having one of the highest losses of bio-diversity in the world โ the Conservation Council ACT Region wrapped up their ACT election candidate forums by pushing the parties on their climate credibility.
Conservation Council ACT Region executive director Helen Oakey hosted the organisationโs third and final ACT election forum last night, Tuesday 29 September.
Ms Oakey said the Council sought to influence governments and build widespread support with business and community to deliver environmental outcomes and put forward evidence-based solutions and innovative ideas for sustainable living.
โTonightโs conversation is around climate change and urban sustainability,โ Ms Oakey said.
โThe impacts of changing climate are well upon us with increasingly severe fires, storms and droughts, forcing societies and ecosystems to change the way they function.
โResponding to climate change requires both adaptation actions to adjust to the changes that have happened and are predicted, and mitigation actions to avoid and minimise further emissions.โ
Ms Oakey said the internationally agreed upon targets to limit global warming to two degrees required โno more than another 95 billion tonnes emissionsโ and at the current rate of 10 billion tonnes of annual global emissions, Canberra would exceed the remaining carbon budget by 2030.
โCanberra is one of the worldโs wealthiest and highest emitting cities per capita and has a clear moral obligation to take strong action to reduce emissions,โ she said.
โIn 2017/18, the ACTโs per capita emissions were 14.2 tonnes, thatโs nearly three times the 2014 global average of 4.9 tonnes per capita.
โWe have a very weighty climate footprint.โ
Present for the debate were: Elizabeth Lee (Canberra Liberals spokesperson for the environment), Mick Gentlemen (ACT Labor spokesperson for environment), Shane Rattenbury (ACT Greens leader), and Robert Knight (Canberra Progressives candidate for Murrumbidgee).
Ms Oakey began the discussion on a point of agreement, with all parties in the ACT Legislative Assembly having already committed to net zero emissions by 2045.
She said climate science indicated Canberra needed to make deeper, faster cuts to stabilise the global climate and keep temperature increases to below two degrees.
โDo you support the need for greater urgency to cut emissions? And if your party forms government, will you commit to expediting actions to reach net zero emissions earlier than 2045?โ Ms Oakey asked.
Ms Lee said the Canberra Liberals supported the plan to zero emissions by 2045 and, in government, her party would look at ways they could do it faster.
โObviously, we will consider those,โ Ms Lee said.
Shane Rattenbury said the Greens believed technological advances would enable the ACT to reduce emissions much faster than by 2045.
โWe should have ambition,โ Mr Rattenbury said.
โI think itโs inherent on wealthy cities to show whatโs possible. Our policy document says we plan to strive to reach zero net emissions by 2030.โ
He said his party had released โcomprehensive plansโ around transitioning to electric vehicles, active travel and retrofitting existing buildings.
Robert Knight from the minor party, Canberra Progressives, has marketed his campaign as a potential pragmatic holder of the balance of power and repeatedly backs the policies of the Greens in this portfolio.
โIf weโre smart about it, we can develop our waste into new industries and sell it to the world,โ Mr Knight said.
โIt is a worldwide problem. It is a worldwide market for technologies, ideas and concepts that help reduce our emissions.
โSo, I think itโs not a case of going lightly and hopefully we donโt damage the economy along the way, we do it smart and leverage the opportunities that come from it.โ
Laborโs Mick Gentlemen said in lieu of the Australian Governmentโs failure to take effective steps, it was now up to the states and territories to โdo the workโ.
โWeโve got a strong climate platform,โ Mr Gentlemen said.
โThis election, weโve committed to supporting tens of thousands of Canberra households to transition to more personally produced and stored renewable energy and significantly reduce their power bills.
โWe want to tackle our largest source of emissions in transport by transitioning Canberraโs entire electric bus fleet to zero emissions by 2037 or earlier.
โNew skills will be zero emission skills, and Labor has a realistic and properly thought out policy to increase Canberraโs urban tree canopy by planting 450,000 trees over the next 25 years.
โWeโll continue to pioneer innovations to reduce emissions, transforming our city into a place where innovators come to build the solutions to tackle climate change and support new clean industries to create high-tech jobs across the city.
โWe want to help our city and its residents adapt to current and unavoidable global warming and invest in measures to protect density for more intense and frequent natural disasters such as weโve seen with bushfires and weโll continue to upgrade ACT Government facilities to assist in reducing the number of carbon emissions produced.โ
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