Climate Change

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (14:51): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change. Can the minister inform the chamber about how South Australia is being recognised internationally for its world-leading efforts on climate change?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his excellent question. It's very impressive that he keeps on top of these issues and obviously knows these things in advance.

At this year's WOMAD, I am advised, which was on 12 March and held over a few days, there was an address by Dr David Suzuki, where he told the crowd that South Australians should be boasting to the world about what we are doing to tackle global warming. Of course, I take every opportunity to boast to the world and interstate about what South Australia is doing in this area, but it is always great when others are doing the boasting for you, and I understand that this is what happened last week, notwithstanding David Suzuki's fantastic comments about South Australia and our approach to tackling global warming.

A London-based NGO called CDP (formerly known as the Climate Disclosure Project) released its CDP Cities 2015 Report. That report ranks Adelaide in the top 10 of 308 international cities in the world for its comprehensive and transparent climate change reporting. There are many benefits to clear and transparent reporting, as we know, because, as I told the Hon. Mr Wade earlier, that's exactly what we do in terms of prescribed burning.

Not only does it enhance our ability to increase efficiency and reduce unnecessary costs but it also helps us track and identify how we are tackling and dealing with the threats arising from climate change. Importantly, it creates awareness within the public of what we are doing, it raises confidence and highlights available business opportunities particularly that we want to track to this state. All this is highly important in our effort to make Adelaide the world's first carbon neutral city.

As the CDP report states, cities provide huge opportunities as hubs of innovation and growth, urbanisation and economic productivity. Reports such as the CDP Cities 2015 Report help us attract investment and make our capital city a showcase for renewables and clean technology and highlight what we are doing in this state and in this city right around the world. They provide credibility and add to our international reputation as the place to come and build the businesses for the low-carbon economy of the future.

The City of Adelaide has already decreased its carbon emissions by 20 per cent from 2007-2013 and, together with the Adelaide City Council, we are actively pursuing initiatives to further reduce emissions in the city and to attract low-carbon technology businesses to the state. In November last year we jointly released the shared vision for Carbon Neutral Adelaide. The vision outlines a framework for becoming a carbon neutral city, including the emissions profile of the city, the carbon emission reductions already achieved and the areas that we need to focus on to achieve carbon neutrality. We have already begun taking steps towards this very ambitious goal. Both the state government and the Adelaide City Council are investing in energy efficiency measures with our respective operations and looking at updating our fleets to low-carbon vehicles.

The Sustainable City Incentives Scheme has to date provided, as I understand it, $130,000 in grants to businesses and residents to invest in solar panels, battery storage and LED replacement light projects. My advice is that this program has already leveraged more than $1.3 million in private investment, or extra investment. We have also just released a call for tenders to provide solar panels for 400 Housing Trust homes. This will not only provide substantial savings on electricity bills but also help us reduce emissions and bring us closer to achieving our goal of a carbon neutral Adelaide.

Then there is the Adelaide to Zero Carbon Challenge that will encourage the world's best and brightest entrepreneurs to help Adelaide become the world's first carbon neutral city. The Premier recently announced South Australia's Low Carbon Entrepreneur Prize as the first initiative in the challenge. A total of A$250,000 in seed funding will be offered to the best minds locally, nationally and internationally to develop ideas covering energy, transport, waste and liveability.

Each of these initiatives will generate business opportunities and help us achieve zero net emissions. The government will build on these when our action plan to achieve this ambitious goal is released later in the year. This plan will concentrate on realising the economic opportunities of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and unlocking investment in South Australia.

Achieving significant emission reductions will require innovative solutions and will provide opportunities for the development of new low-carbon technologies. They prove that the state government is committed to keep leading this charge in effective policies and transparent reporting around tackling global warming. This is something that we should all be boasting about in a bipartisan way and something that we can be very proud of. Our state is leading the world.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Parnell.