[Greens-Media] Re-Energising Australia: The transition to a Low Carbon Future.

[Hollo, Tim (Sen C. Milne)]

Tuesday, 24 April 2007

Re-Energising Australia: The transition to a Low Carbon Future.

The Australian Greens today launched a report, Re-energising Australia,
which breaks important new ground in the climate and resource policy
debate in Australia.

Re-Energising Australia proposes solutions to the converging challenges
of climate change, oil depletion, and the vulnerability of the resource
dependent Australian economy. Re-Energising Australia sets out what we
need to achieve, a suite of policy options and strategies to do so, and
the array of opportunities that such action presents.

Barney Foran, visiting fellow at the Australian National University and
a member of the expert panel involved in developing Re-Energising
Australia, praised the report, saying "The cross cutting nature of the
philosophical thought and its translation into practical policies set a
new standard for national policy design in Australia."

Australian Greens Climate Change Spokesperson, Senator Christine Milne,
said today in releasing the report, "The science is clear.
Industrialised nations, like Australia, need to reduce our emissions by
30% by 2020 and at least 80% by 2050 if we are to have a decent chance
of preventing runaway climate change. We also must face up to the
increasing rates of oil depletion and our unsustainable economy based on
digging up, cutting down and shipping overseas. 

"We can solve these interconnected problems without destroying the
economy. Federal and state governments need to develop a wide range of
strategies in a coordinated way. Some will be regulatory levers, some
will provide economic inducements and some will impose economic
penalties; but all will create new economic opportunities.

"The collapse of the Murray Darling should be a wake up call. It
demonstrates the truth of Sir Nicholas Stern's view that the cost of
addressing climate change is nowhere near as expensive as not addressing
it.

 "When the Prime Minister committed Australian troops to East Timor, or
to respond to global terrorism, he didn't cost the action but rather
argued that the cost in human lives and misery of not acting was
untenable. Such is the case with climate change, but the Prime Minister
does not see it.

"What is the cost to Australian farmers and rural communities of the
collapse of the Murray Darling system because Mr Howard didn't buy back
water allocations ten years ago? What is the cost of a 1 metre sea level
rise to coastal communities? What is the cost of communities displaced
in the Pacific or a world without the Great Barrier Reef? 

"The imperative of the twin problems of climate change and oil depletion
is that it requires us to change the way we live. The silver lining is
that the transition to a low carbon economy creates new jobs, economic
opportunities and greater security for those nations that grasp them."

Contact: Tim Hollo 03 6224 8899 or 0437 587 562
 
Re-Energising Australia

Key points of the report
Re-Energising Australia is the Greens Party's platform on setting a new
economic direction for Australia to tackle resource dependence, oil
depletion and climate change. 
Its key points include:
*	Setting both short term and long term targets to reduce
emissions by 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050, with rolling
five-year budgets and reporting;
*	Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and immediately taking a pro-active
role in negotiating a post-2012 framework which commits Australia to
serious, legally binding reduction targets;
*	Forging, promoting and signing a global oil depletion protocol
and establishing a national oil-independence commission;
*	Establishing whole-of-government processes to examine the policy
links between climate change, oil depletion and national security;
*	Introducing a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme for
stationary energy, and replacing fuel excise with a carbon tax on
transport emissions in order to put a price on the environmental cost of
carbon emissions;
*	Directly investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and
alternative transport;
*	Mandating efficiency standards and introducing a national energy
efficiency target to halt and reverse energy demand growth;
*	Increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) to
ensure that at least 15% of Australia's electricity comes from renewable
sources by 2012 and at least 25% by 2020;
*	Supplementing the MRET with 'feed-in' laws that guarantee access
and minimum prices for renewable energy for set periods, to give
renewable energy technologies a commercial foothold;
*	Introducing a moratorium on new coal power unless and until
carbon capture and storage can be proven to be safe, effective and
viable;
*	Ending old growth logging;
*	Using carbon tax revenue to reduce payroll taxes;
*	Creating a real future fund to help finance the transition to a
low carbon, post-oil economy; and
*	Introducing broad measures of genuine economic progress to
supplement current GDP measures.

Tim Hollo
Media and Communications Adviser
Senator Christine Milne
Phone: + 61 3 6224 8899 (Hobart)
Phone: + 61 2 6277 3063 (Canberra)
Mobile: + 61 437 587 562
Email: tim.hollo at aph.gov.au
Skype: timhollo
Website: www.christinemilne.org.au