Premier’s Hypocrisy on Climate Change - 3 February 2006

Premier Iemma’s statements on climate change as he heads to the COAG meeting next week will be meaningless unless he backs away from the greenhouse gas intensive desalination plant, said Greens MLC Ian Cohen today.

“It is all very well for the Premier to say that NSW ‘will go it alone’ in the face of federal inaction over a national climate change summit, but unless he drops the desalination proposal for Sydney it is obvious his promises are empty. The proposed desalination plant could increase greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.25 million tonnes. Government rhetoric about offsets does not add up – it would still be a huge addition to our greenhouse gas output,” Mr Cohen said.

“Rather than going into the Council of Australian Governments meeting with the intention to argue over a national emissions trading scheme, Mr Iemma should be leading the way and pushing for mandatory renewable energy targets. Emissions trading schemes such as that used in NSW do not address climate change in any meaningful way - they just shift emissions elsewhere. Off sets in NSW to date have largely been window dressing, without tackling the substantive issues of reducing emissions.

“The only real way of combating climate change is to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A target of 10% renewable energy by 2010 and 20% by 2020 is easily achievable – we have the technology and resources available to do this. Many countries in Europe have much higher targets and NSW risks falling behind in this growing field of technology.

“The NSW Government needs to get serious about climate change and raise the bar in the face of federal inaction on the issue. But to go to the negotiating table without seeming hypocritical, the government must first abandon its desalination plans,” Mr Cohen said.