CLEAN ENERGY

The Hon. S.G. WADE (16:13): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation a question relating to clean energy.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: In December 2010, the state government announced a package of measures to tackle climate change. The proposed package included, firstly, opening up 400,000 square kilometres of crown land for solar and wind farms; $1 million in grants to kickstart the creation of community-owned and operated solar farms; supporting further research and development in solar energy through $100,000 in grants for the development of an affordable, automatic solar tracking system; and aims for a further 10 per cent improvement in minimum energy efficiency standards for air conditioners by 2014, installing with the Adelaide City Council, Adelaide's first public electric vehicle recharging station at the Central Market.

My question to the minister is: given that the announcement was made in 2010, can the minister please provide the house with an update on the progress of the clean energy package?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (16:15): I thank the honourable member for his most important question, although I must say at the outset that the majority if not all of the question pertains to another portfolio, that of minister Koutsantonis in the other place, but I will take the opportunity that arises from the question to talk about climate change.

It is important to start out with this statement: governments, I believe, have a responsibility to act on and follow the best scientific advice that they have available to them. Scientific advice that I have is that global warming is happening, that the climate is changing, that greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity are contributing to this change and, if climate change is not tackled, it will cause significant human environmental and economic costs. Advice from scientific organisations, including the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Australian Academy of Science, supports these statements.

Across the globe, 2001 to 2010 was the warmest decade on record. Each decade in Australia since the 1940s has been warmer than the last and the Bureau of Meteorology records show that in South Australia the climate has warmed by about 1°C since 1950. Rainfall has declined during the important autumn growing season over the last two decades, and these are the facts as reported to me. The newly formed federal government claimed to accept the science of climate change and that they understand the impact it will have on the Australian environment and economy, but unfortunately they have not supported this with credible policy to deal with the challenges that climate change will bring. I understand that it is very early days and I look forward to working with the new federal government in trying to assist them in coming to terms with the science around climate change.

At the federal level the former government acted responsibly. It heeded scientific advice and made a decision not to put future generations at risk by refusing to tackle the problem. The former federal government took the responsible action to reduce carbon pollution and adapt to the impacts of climate change through moving to an emissions trading scheme as soon as possible. This mechanism would have assisted in meeting Australia's international commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020.

Here we have now the prime minister elect—and I congratulate him on achieving that office—indicating that legislation to repeal the carbon pricing mechanism will be introduced on the first sitting day of parliament. The Labor government believes that polluters, not taxpayers, should pay to reduce carbon pollution. By putting a price on pollution the former federal Labor government was creating incentives for Australian businesses to develop new, innovative low emission technologies. In contrast, the coalition's policy will have bureaucrats deciding how businesses should cut emissions and how taxpayers will be paying for those cuts. Under the coalition, taxes will increase to pay polluters, and this is going to impact on the whole economy.

Federal Labor's emissions trading scheme only applied to around 370 large polluters, such as coal-fired electricity generators and other large industrial activities. These businesses would have had to buy a carbon permit from the federal government for each tonne of carbon pollution they put into the atmosphere each year. This serves to create a powerful incentive, a price signal, to cut pollution and ensures that pollution is cut at least to cost.

Many countries around the world are taking action to reduce their carbon pollution, including through emissions trading schemes and by putting a price on carbon. Under the former federal Labor government, Australia sought to do its fair share to respond to the challenge of climate change. Ninety-nine countries have made pledges in the United Nations international climate change conference to reduce their carbon pollution by 2020 and beyond, including the United States, India and China.

Many countries already have emissions trading schemes or carbon pricing in place. These include 28 countries in the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, Shenzhen in China, New Zealand, the US state of California, and Quebec in Canada. Several other countries have legislated or are planning emissions trading schemes or carbon prices to start in the next two years. These include countries as various as South Korea, South Africa, Mexico and seven Chinese cities and provinces which have a combined population of more than 200 million people.

At the United Nations climate change conference in Durban in 2011, all countries agreed to negotiate a new international agreement by 2015 with legal obligations to reduce emissions. The coalition will let Australia fall behind on addressing climate change unless it reassesses its approach to carbon pricing. Their policies are not designed to reduce pollution and they have been described by Malcolm Turnbull as a fig leaf to disguise the fact that the coalition have no real policy to deal with climate change.

That was then, this is now. They are now in government, they now have to address these important policy issues and, as I said, I will be very happy to work with them very closely government to government to come up with a solution to climate change and renewable energy that will benefit the whole of Australia.