Federal Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water, Senator Penny Wong, said that the themes of the National General Assembly are all relevant to tackling and adapting to climate change and that Local Government is key to these decisions.
“Councils have shown considerable leadership, accepting that climate change should transcend all politics,” she said. “The public is demanding more leadership on climate change.”
Senator Wong said that with each decade since the 1940s being hotter than the previous one, some 247,000 residences at risk from sea level rises, increasing health risks and heat related deaths, communities are calling out for action.
“This Government is still committed to an ETS and carbon pricing,” she said. “The world will have to move and move fast. The Senate will have to get into step.”
Senator Wong said that her Department has recently released two new resources for Local Government. The first is a tool to assess the risk of sea level rises, which areas are at risk and when. Regional workshops over the next few months are planned to roll this out.
The second resource is a series of inundation maps projecting risk out to 2100.
“This is a whole of council issue, not just for a particular department,” she said. “Councils cannot ignore the legal liability questions.”
On renewable energy, she said that $19 billion will be spent by 2030. A demonstration project has recently been announced which will see Newcastle as the site for the first commercial scale Smart Grid to help residents to save energy, connect renewable energy to the grid and tackle climate change.
Commencing in mid 2010, the $100 million Smart Grid, Smart City demonstration project in Newcastle is expected to lead to Australia wide advances in energy efficiency.
“Partnership is vital – working together to give our communities the best chance to deal with these challenges,” the Minister said.
During another session at the General Assembly, Ian Carruthers, First Assistant Secretary of the Adaptation, Land and Communications Division of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, said that Local Governments should be acting now to ensure that they have the correct framework in place to tackle the increasing issues surrounding climate change.
Through the Local Adaptation and Pathways Programs the Australian Government is helping many Local Governments undertake climate change risk assessment and develop action plans to deal with any arising issues.
Already some 90 Local Governments have taken part in the program.
He said that with the majority of urbanised Australians residing on the coast, the impact of rising sea levels, increased rainfall and ocean acidification will soon impact many locations. It is important that councils affected start planning now.
Ian Carruthers oulined the Australian Government’s four key agenda issues in relation to climate change:
- • maintaining a flexible economy and social
safety net - leading a national reform on the building code – the need for uniform rules and
regulations - management of common assets and
programs - delivering national science and information
resources that underpin key decision making.
He said that the importance of the implementation of these plans is in moving from awareness to action, and there are many benefits in taking action now.
“Adaptation is a long term agenda, which doesn’t have to be done right now but it is worth investing early for the future,” Ian Carruthers said.
He believes we now need to start working together to build on the partnerships put in place and welcome further information and feedback to make strong development plans for the future.
