The Liberals’ Climate Change (State Action) Amendment Bill 2021, tabled in Parliament today, represents a step-forward, but is a missed opportunity for the strong, meaningful emissions’ reduction action the IPCC science requires.
Disappointingly, little has changed from the draft bill, and the stark failure to hold industries to account for rising emissions remains.
The government’s refusal to mandate targets for industries means there is no commitment to reversing the trajectory of increasing emissions. The bill even removes the reference to setting sectoral targets from the current Act’s stated objectives.
The Greens welcome the introduction of a statewide climate change risk assessment and activity statement, as well as sector-based emissions‘ reduction and resilience plans. Plans, however, aren’t binding – laws are.
Without targets to strive for, sectoral plans will likely have less impact than the urgency for strong action demands. There is not time for softly, softly when it comes to tackling the most urgent threat facing humanity.
In a climate emergency, the Liberals delayed tabling this legislation until the last week of the parliamentary year. This will mean the soonest it can be debated is in another three and a half months’ time, in March 2022.
The Bill acknowledges the critical place this island’s forests play as a carbon sink. If the Liberals want Tasmanians to take them seriously as climate leaders, they should also announce an end to native forest logging.
