climateXchange

Woden SEE-Change and the Canberra Loves Forty Percent campaign team organised a great event on 13 July where MLAs Simon Corbell and Shane Rattenbury spoke on the 2020 carbon emissions target.

Simon said the target was just a number and the key thing was to focus on actions. He said that there had been a 300% increase in solar panel installations since the introduction of the feed-in tariff. Even greater opportunities for renewable energy generation will lie with industry-scale solar panel installations. In answer to a question about the proposed solar farm, he said that 10 companies had been shortlisted, but now the Government was thinking that instead of contributing a $30 million grant towards the project, it may be able to achieve a better result through an industry-scale feed-in tariff. The Government is considering mandating that energy retailers help households become more energy-efficient. It is also trialling micro-wind generation on a building in Belconnen.

Shane said that the Greens had pushed for a range of initiatives, since implemented by the Government. They have three priorities for reducing emissions:

1. Energy efficiency, for example by making sure the new Molonglo urban development aims for 7 star energy efficient homes.

2. Renewable energy generation

3. Better public transport

Shane said the Greens in the Legislative Assembly will all vote for a 40% emission reduction target by 2020, but nine MLA votes are needed to get this target passed by the Assembly.

At the end of the public meeting, the attendees as a whole agreed on a resolution calling on the ACT Government and the Assembly to set a 40% carbon emissions target by 2020.