Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Forests spokesperson
In Budget Estimates today, Premier Rockliff refused to acknowledge the role of native forest protection in responding to climate change.
The Greens asked how his government plans to maintain Tasmania’s world-leading carbon profile, which is attributable according to Australian researchers, to forests protected under the Tasmanian Forest Agreement.
In a paper released this year, scientists from the Australian National University and Griffith University, estimate protected and unlogged forests have removed about 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year over the past decade.
The Rockliff Government has a plan it describes as ‘ambitious’ to maintain Tasmania’s net zero emissions by 2030 target, but no strategy to get there and no plan to protect this island’s vast carbon stores.
If Tasmania is to remain a global climate leader, it must protect its native forests. Under current government policy, around 1nmillion tonnes of native forest woodchips are shipped to China each year where they, ultimately, end up in landfill or sewer systems.
Nobody in the Rockliff Government can honestly say the native forest logging industry is sustainable. It destroys and burns our carbon stores.
In a climate emergency, we can and must do better.