[Greens-Media] GGAS a lot of hot air

[Manderson, Roland]

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ACT GREENS MLA DEB FOSKEY MEDIA RELEASE
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8 August 08

GGAS a lot of hot air

Deb Foskey, ACT Greens MLA, today commented on the Chief Minister's
claims that the ACT's participation in NSW's Greenhouse Gas Abatement
Scheme is a highly effective measure in reducing our greenhouse gases.

"Of course, we have done well in this scheme and abating 400,000 tonnes
of emissions sounds a lot, but even so, our emissions continue to rise,
as the Commissioner for the Environment pointed out in her report
yesterday," said Dr Foskey.

"As our population increases, so does the amount of greenhouse gas we
can emit under the NSW scheme - and it is a scheme we have no control
over."

"Last year I tried to amend the government's legislation which allowed
our emissions to remain at 7.27 tonnes CO2 equivalent per capita till
2020."

"This at a time when the urgency of acting to reduce the worst effects
of climate change is clear, and we know we should be reducing the level
of emissions, not keeping them at the same level for each Canberran,
which is in fact an increase in our emissions overall."

"Abatement certificates don't encourage the reduction of greenhouse
gases - and we have to hope that the trees planted so we can earn our
certificates stay in the ground long enough to use up an awful lot of
carbon dioxide; sadly, we cannot be sure of this."

"Modelling from the Total Environment Centre in Sydney showed that to
achieve emissions five per cent below the 1990 level, the benchmark
should drop annually until it reaches 5.85 tonnes of greenhouse gas
emissions per head - considerably below 7.27 tonnes."

"Let's hope the federal emissions trading scheme, when it is up and
running, does a lot better than this."
"There are lots of things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, and
the ACT Government's Climate Change Strategy, Weathering the Change,
lists some of them. While the GGAS scheme looks and sounds good, it
hasn't reduced the amount of greenhouse gas that we produce here in
Canberra and the government will have to look elsewhere to really make a
difference," said Deb Foskey.

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MEDIA CONTACT Deb Foskey 62050161 or 0412223585 
  
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