POLICY PAPER: Climate Change Act

What do we need in a Tasmanian Climate Change Act?

The Climate Tasmania group has been focusing on the need for a new Climate Change Act for several years. There are several articles on this site covering this important and timely issue.

We have now recently communicated with all Tasmanian MPs summarising our policy position. See below or please CLICK HERE to view or download.

CT-policy-Tas-Climate-Act-2021-11-03

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Climate Act Review – our submission

This submission provides a combined response to the two separate but related consultation processes being run by the Department of Premier and Cabinet at the moment:

  1. Review of the Climate Change Act including the Discussion paper by Jacobs
  2. Developing a New Climate Change Action Plan for Tasmania and the associated Opportunities Paper.
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Tasmanian State Election – climate facts

This week Climate Tasmania is releasing a series of Fact Sheets to help clarify the need for appropriate, well considered climate policies in the state election context.

We are not politically aligned and are not recommending specific policies for the state election on May 1. However climate change has many technical aspects and we therefore feel that it is important for political representatives and voters to be informed of the facts.

Please click on menu items at the head of this page to understand our role as an advisory body.


Fact Sheet #1: Does Tasmania have 100% renewable energy?
Media release

Fact Sheet #2: Is Tasmania a world leader in mitigating climate change?
Media release
• Radio interview John Hunter with Ryk Goddard, 21 April 2021
• Earlier, longer website post: Is Tasmania really a Climate Leader?

Fact sheet #3: Stranded assets – why are they important?
Media release

Fact sheet #4: Will Tasmania’s 200% renewables target reduce emissions?
Media release
• An earlier briefing paper with references: Tasmania’s 200% Renewables Target

Policy Paper: Why there’s a need for an independent Climate Commission.

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A new Climate Act for Tasmania

Information Resources…

… for anyone interested in the development of comprehensive climate legislation for Tasmania.

We invite readers to scan the briefing articles below to find out the state of play and the reform initiatives we have been putting forward.

In the absence of such a legislative framework our state’s responses the climate challenge are subject to the vagaries of competing interests in the political sphere and lack essential mandates.

Although there are various parallel state government action plans and strategies in place or being developed, in the absence of a legislated framework there is nothing to tie down consecutive administrations to formidably deal climate change appropriately.

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Climate Change Act Review

Below is information that we provided to the Tasmanian Climate Change Act review, February 2021.

Introduction

Climate Tasmania is pleased to have been asked to provide information to Jacobs, the consultants tasked with the independent review of the Tasmanian Climate Change Act.

Information about the review process is available here.

[Note: in this document “emissions” by our definition cannot be negative. We use “sequestration” to identify what others might call negative emissions. “Net emissions” denotes emissions minus sequestration.]

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A National Climate Change Act

For the past five years Climate Tasmania has been fostering the need for comprehensive new climate legislation for Tasmania, to replace the minimalist 2008 Tasmanian Act that now serves little purpose.

Zali Seggall’s Climate Bill
has relevance to Tasmania

To that end we have looked with interest at the impending national Climate Act proposed by independent Zali Steggall.

Below is our submission to the House Standing Committee on Environment and Energy on the Climate Change (National Framework for Adaptation and Mitigation) Bill 2020 and associated legislation.]

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Slide presentation

Climate Tasmania has developed the presentation below to guide decision makers and members of the public in understanding how Tasmania’s climate legislation could become world leading.

The presentation is in PDF form, is self explanatory and can be viewed in 15 minutes. We welcome opportunities to present our ideas to MPs and organisations who wish to learn more.

Note: Please hover over presentation to advance pages.

(The slide show can be downloaded to your computer HERE)

SLIDE-PRESENTATION-v15-compressed

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THE CLIMATE CHANGE & COVID PANDEMICS

Why the Tasmanian government’s recovery plans must deal with both together.

Catastrophic climate events increasingly seen as a major economic issue for Australian states.

The Tasmanian Government’s covid-19 recovery process (PESRAC) has issued an interim report and is inviting community submissions. Climate Tasmania has been very concerned that PESRAC appears to have sidelined the climate change issue, rather than deal with these two major disruptions in tandem.

Further below is Climate Tasmania’s follow-up letter to the Premier and the state government’s recovery team.

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Tasmania’s 200% Renewables Target

A Briefing paper by Climate Tasmania

On 13 October 2020, the Tasmanian Government introduced a Bill in state parliament to legislate the previously announced target (the Tasmanian Renewable Energy Target – TRET) whereby Tasmania would set a goal of delivering 200% renewable electricity by 2040.

This paper provides background on this legislation and some of the issues it raises.

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Posted in Climate change responses, Electricity supply, Energy, State government, Tasmania's carbon emissions | 1 Comment

TASMANIA’S POST-COVID RECOVERY

Online Public consultation is now open.

Although multiple scholarly articles and media reports have been explaining how covid-19 and the climate crisis are part of the same battle – and therefore must be dealt with in tandem – there’s a risk that these lessons are not being learned by governments.

The Premier’s Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council (PESRAC) advises the Tasmanian government on strategies and initiatives to support Tasmania’s recovery from the COVID-19 downturn.

Interim Report report to the government makes no mention of climate change.

We believe it is fundamentally important that the long-term climate change risks to Tasmania’s economy and society are not put aside as major strategic decisions are made in coming months.

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