The Greens have announced their post-2020 carbon reduction targets – 40-50% by 2025 and 60-80% by 2030 – which they say will put Australia on the path to reach net-zero pollution by 2040.
In a speech delivered to the Sydney Environment Institute at Sydney University on Monday night, Greens Leader Christine Milne had little warmth for the Abbott Government on its emissions reduction record.
“.. the Abbott government is the wholly owned subsidiary of the coal industry, having torn down carbon pricing, attacked the RET, abolished the mining tax, maintained fossil fuel subsidies, attempted to abolish ARENA and CEFC, promoted the return of environmental protection powers to the states, promoted Carmichael and Galilee basin coal mines, CSG and most recently approached Bjorn Lomborg to come to UWA with a $4 million grant.”
Senator Milne says the first thing that needs to be done to secure serious action on the climate is to restore Australia’s democracy by taking back the power from corporations. Additionally, Australians need to be inspired with a vision of what is possible.
Inspiration has already been witnessed in Australia with the rapid uptake of residential solar power. The solar revolution to date has far exceeded what many hoped, dreamed or in the case of some power companies, dreaded.
Australian households had installed more than 1.3 million rooftop PV systems, representing 4,132 MW of installed solar panels, as of March 2015. These systems are not only generating millions of dollars retail value in electricity each day, roughly 16,528 tonnes of emissions are potentially avoided each day, or 6,032,720 tonnes a year. But there are still many commercial and residential rooftops throughout the nation not harvesting the sun’s energy.
Senator Milne warned about delaying real action on climate.
“Each year that we delay is a direct transfer of a greater and greater burden upon future generations. This is intergenerational theft on a grand scale. Ironically history will show that the people doing the most to delay action are the ones who are undermining our economic system and our way of life into the future.”
However, she says a low-carbon future isn’t something to fear, but rather an opportunity to be embraced.
“Getting to zero pollution by 2040 is not the tale of woe, laden with costs, lost-jobs and heartache as the Abbott government and mining industry would have us all believe. Rapidly decarbonising our society is an opportunity to address what we don’t like about the way we live and replace it with what we want, with the jobs to go with it, it is the greatest enabling wake-up call I can imagine.”
Key to achieving the targets is renewable energy. Senator Milne said Australia needs to keep the nation’s Renewable Energy Target at 41,000 gigawatt hours by 2020; which would deliver 26-28 per cent of Australia’s energy. As this clean power comes online, coal generation can be taken offline in a well-planned transition to ensure coal jobs become green-collar jobs.
“If we do nothing, these jobs will go anyway, but the decisions will be abrupt and throw people out of work without capacity to adjust. Already solar jobs outnumber coal jobs across Australia. The energy revolution has been won by renewables and solar has won.”
A recent report from Australian National University’s Centre for Climate Economics and Policy stated the nation Australia has the potential to reach 100% renewables and zero net emissions by 2050.
The full text of Senator Milne’s speech can be viewed here (PDF)
