Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Climate Change spokesperson
The Tasmanian Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report, released this week, makes for distressing reading.
Between 2016 and 2017, emissions from all major sectors have gone up. Tasmania’s total carbon emissions grew by 1.2 million tonnes in 2016.
Tasmania’s emissions grew by 10% in both agriculture and industrial processing, 11% in manufacturing and construction, 7% in mining, 5% in the waste sector, and 9% in land use and forestry.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise under the Hodgman Government, who abolished the Tasmanian Climate Action Council and Climate Change Ministry upon coming into office. In a time when we are facing a global climate emergency, however, it’s shocking.
In an irresponsible attempt to distract from the issue, the so-called Environment Minister, Peter Gutwein labelled the Greens ‘alarmist’. Asking reasonable questions about how a government is tackling the greatest threat facing humanity - global heating - is responsible.
While the Liberals and Labor continue to ignore future generations and science, the Greens will keep speaking the truth about the global climate emergency.
Right now massive wildfires are burning across the Arctic Circle, very high levels of methane gas are being emitted, and Greenland's glaciers are rapidly melting. Why Peter Gutwein needs any more evidence of a planet that’s dangerously overheating is beyond us.
Yesterday, the City of Darwin declared a climate emergency, joining the more than 889 jurisdictions worldwide committing to a society-wide mobilisation to bring down emissions. This is what responsible governments are doing to give their people the best chance of living on a habitable planet.
Minister Gutwein must act to reverse our increasing emissions and keep the carbon stored in native forests by protecting them against future logging. He must also legislate targets to significantly reduce emissions for every Tasmanian sector.