Greens urge action on climate change at COAG meeting - 9 February 2006

With the desalination plant shelved, Premier Iemma has an opportunity to go to tomorrow’s Council of Australian Governments meeting with greater credibility and push for real action on climate change, said Greens MLC Ian Cohen today.

“I hope the Premier will stand by his remarks from last week to ‘go it alone on climate change’ in the face of federal inaction, and put pressure on the Council to invest in renewable energy programs. We cannot afford to sit back and talk about emissions trading schemes. Emissions need to be drastically reduced, not traded. Time is not on our side, with scientists warning that tropical diseases and heat stress will become major threats to our health in decades unless we act now,” Mr Cohen said.

“We risk falling behind the rest of the world unless we take up opportunities in renewable energy. Governments should encourage this by setting mandatory renewable energy targets. This is not ‘pie in the sky’. The European Union has set a renewable energy target of 21% by 2010.

“Compared to this attempt, renewable energy targets of 10% by 2010 and 20% by 2020 in NSW would be very modest. The NSW Government should be leading the way by encouraging the growth of the renewable energy sector, which would create jobs and export opportunities, rather than concentrating on window dressing, such as emissions trading.

“Premier Iemma needs to act where the federal government has failed on renewable energy targets. The NSW government needs to end its addiction to coal,” Mr Cohen said.