Climate change action revitalised

The Queensland Government is revitalising action on climate change, Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles told a Gold Coast conference today (1 July).

Opening the “Climate Change for Good” conference, Dr Miles told delegates Queensland was getting ‘back on track’ when it came to taking action on climate change.

“Queensland was once a national leader when it came to taking action on climate change. It is a shame we went three years without a plan because of a politically motived campaign by the LNP to ban any mention of it.

“And its fitting that on the eve of the federal election we are talking about climate change because polls show voters are more concerned than ever about how we are going to tackle it,” Dr Miles said.

Held at Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus on 1 and 2 July, the conference was convened by Gecko, a Gold Coast-based environment group.

“While climate change presents its challenges, Queensland can benefit from positive action, bringing about green jobs, a renewable energy economy and greater protection for our biodiversity.

“We are developing and implementing strategies to better understand how global warming will affect Queensland, to transition to a low carbon future and to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.

“The Queensland Government has a strong commitment to play its part in the global effort to limit warming to below two degrees and our state is in an enviable position when it comes to this target.

“With an abundance of sunshine and solar energy potential, Queenslanders are already installing small scale solar at a rate of approximately one solar panel per minute.”

Dr Miles told conference delegates the government’s climate change initiatives included:

• delivering an additional $6.8 million over four years to lead the development of the Government’s climate change strategies
• providing $12 million over 3 years for  the QCoast2100 program with the Local Government Association of Queensland so councils can deal with coastal hazards and the impacts of sea-level rises
• investing $3 million to develop the Queensland Climate Adaptation Strategy (Q-CAS) that will join the community, industry, local government, and research institutions in identifying climate change risks and implementing solutions
• increasing the uptake of renewable energy in Queensland by setting a target of one million ‘solar rooftops’ generating 3000 megawatts of power for Queensland by 2020
• setting up a Queensland Productivity Commission inquiry into solar energy pricing, and
• having the government-owned electricity network operator Ergon Energy buy 150 megawatts of renewable energy from suppliers in regional Queensland.

“We’ve also released an Advancing Climate Action in Queensland: Making the transition to a low carbon future discussion paper to kick-start a climate change transition strategy for Queensland,” Dr Miles said.

“I congratulate Gecko and Griffith University for providing a forum that covers a wide range of climate change topics and takes advantage of the knowledge of many climate change experts.”

ENDS

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