40%Sep 18, 2010
Tri-partisan support
Although both Labor and the Greens have come out in support of a 40% target for the ACT, the Liberals, at present, only support a 30% target. Although Labor and the Greens together have the numbers to guarantee that the bill will be passed through the Legislative Assembly, we think that it is vital that such an important piece of territory-building legislation – legislation which will drive innovation and the green economy in our city over the next decade – receives tri-partisan support. This is why we are asking you all to please pick up your paper and pencil once more and to write a letter to Zed Seselja, the Liberal leader and climate change shadow minister. Zed needs to be congratulated on the important leadership he has shown by supporting a 30% target and encouraged to take one step further and support the legislation for a 40% reduction.
Frank Jotzo, a senior lecturer at the ANU Crawford School of Economics and Policy, and Deputy Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, writing recently in the Canberra Times reminded us all why this is such an important issue.
The ACT has the chance to show that a shift to renewable energy can be done at moderate cost, and quite possibly with broader economic benefits. In that way, it could make a real difference nationally, where the climate change debate sorely needs vision and concrete examples of the shift to a low-carbon economy. Combined with strong programs for energy efficiency and more sustainable transport, large investments in local renewable energy could turn the ACT into a model for how to run an economy in a carbon-constrained world a small one with somewhat unusual characteristics, but with a powerful demonstration effect nevertheless. If ACT emissions can be halved by 2020, that would be an impressive achievement. And the local economy may well benefit from “the vision thing”. An image of Canberra as clean as well as clever could help attract modern service industries, and nourish research and teaching at the local universities.
Zed Seselja can be contacted by writing to:
Zed Seselja
ACT Legislative Assembly,
GPO Box 1020,
CANBERRA,
ACT 2601.
or by emailing seselja@parliament.act.gov.au. Alternatively his fax number is 6205 3001 and his phone number is 6205 0323.
