CLIMATE CHANGE —
POLICY
1208. Hon TIM CLIFFORD to the Minister for Environment:
I refer to numerous questions that I
have asked in this place about the McGowan government's failure to
implement a climate change strategy for WA, in response to which the minister
has assured me that the government has commenced developing a climate change
policy and has undertaken a stocktake of all climate change policies, projects
and programs across government.
(1) Can the
minister please explain the purpose of the stocktake in light of the Minister
for Energy's recent announcement in The West Australian that the
government has no intention of introducing a state climate change policy?
(2) Assuming the
minister was speaking in good faith in stating that the government had
commenced developing a climate change policy, what has changed?
(3) Given that
the federal government has so abjectly failed to implement a stable climate and
energy policy, why does the government consider that a national approach to
climate change is the most efficient and effective way to meet carbon emissions
reduction targets and deliver on Australia's international commitments?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1)–(3) As
I have previously stated in this house, the McGowan government takes climate
change seriously, and is committed to playing a positive role by developing
effective policy in this area and fostering renewable energy. Work continues
across government towards tackling the issue of climate change. I table the
comments made in full by the Minister for Energy and ask that they be
incorporated into Hansard.
Leave granted.
[See paper 2224.]
The following material was incorporated —
The
comments the Hon. Ben Wyatt MLA, Minister for Energy, provided to the West
Australian are as follows:
''The
Federal Government's decision to walk away from the National Energy
Guarantee has certainly meant that until the next Federal Election we are
unlikely to see a comprehensive national policy that deals with energy
emissions.
''However,
I remain hopeful that once we have a new Federal Government, of either stripe,
we will see them embrace a national approach to an emissions reduction
strategy. The McGowan Government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas
emissions consistent with Australia's international commitments, and
supports a national approach as the most efficient and effective way to deliver
on these commitments.
''This
is why the [sic] we continue to work through the Council of Australian
Governments Energy Council to seek a national approach to reducing emissions
from the electricity sector.
''It
should be noted that as it stands the national Renewable Energy Target
requirement will remain in place at the same level between 2020 and 2030.
''However,
despite the inertia on a Federal level, we are not merely sitting idly by
waiting for direction.
''The McGowan Government
is undertaking several important reform initiatives to enable greater renewable
energy participation on the South West Interconnected System. These reforms
include:
�
a 'constrained' access
framework for the Western Power network, which will allow new renewable
generation projects to be connected to the network without incurring expensive
network augmentation costs; and
�
reforms to modernise our Wholesale Electricity
Market to enable all capable technologies to provide capacity, energy and
ancillary services in the future, including storage, to enable the lowest cost
electricity supply mix as we transition to a system with greater levels of
renewable generation.
''In
short, we are continuing to work on our own reforms while still remaining
hopeful that after the next Federal election we will see whoever is in the
Lodge put energy emissions policy back on the national agenda.''