Peter Garrett MP
Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Enviornment and Heritage

Today I want to outline to you Labor’s approach to protecting our precious environment and addressing dangerous climate change.

I speak to you with a powerful conviction that we’ve no time to lose, and with a lifelong, unwavering commitment to getting these issues addressed and getting them fixed.

We are clearly now living in a world of climate change – it is the most important environmental, economic and political issue we face.

And we are at a turning point in our history. Australia, the land of droughts and flooding rains, from the Kakadu in the north to the stressed Murray-Darling Basin in the South, is highly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, hugely exposed to the unpredictable effects of wilder weather.

The science is in; the signs are all around us.

But as the leaders of the Asia Pacific gather in Sydney, it is clear the Howard Government is, again, failing the test of leadership on climate change.

After more than a decade of conservative rule, eleven long years of scepticism and denial, Australians want real action on this issue now, and Labor is ready to deliver if we are given that great privilege.
 
This election, coming as it does in the early years of a new century, and with climate science now undeniable, is critically important.

For here the die is cast as we front up to the many national and international challenges which confront us.

Here is the opportunity to strike out with new directions and fresh ideas.  

New directions and fresh ideas for cutting Australia’s soaring greenhouse pollution.  

New directions and fresh ideas for preparing Australia for the dramatic impact of climate change.  

New directions and fresh ideas for international leadership on climate change – playing a positive and constructive role in the negotiation of upcoming climate change agreements.

Whether it is providing clarity to the business community about the economic framework we need to put in place to address climate change.

Or whether it is assisting our farmers with information to enable them to better plan and adapt to the changing environment they will inhabit, Australians want to know what leadership and direction a Labor government, if elected, will bring to bear to engage seriously with this issue and to forge real climate change solutions.

Friends, climate change is the ultimate intergenerational issue: a test case of whether we are prepared to take action for our children and our grandchildren.

The critical narrative underpinning our examination of the coalition’s record on this issue is that Mr Howard and his government have never taken climate change seriously:


The Howard Government received the IPCC report but has done nothing about it.

Despite the strong expressions of community concern, the emergence of business leadership wanting to take positive action. Despite the growing number of international initiatives, targets and actions; for instance, Canada’s commitment to cut its emissions 70 per cent below 2006 levels by 2050.

Despite the ringing of the bells, there is no escaping that Mr Howard has spent twice as much on advertising than he has on his climate change budget.

This government has spent less than a $ 1billion on climate change programs since 1996 but more than $2 billion on tax-payer funded political advertising.

Put another way, this year the government will spend about 0.05 per cent of the $245 billion federal budget on climate change.

And ladies and gentleman – 0.05 is a blood alcohol limit, not a climate change strategy.

But the Government’s spending priorities should come as no surprise: on climate change they are all bluff and no responsibility.

Indeed climate change has come to symbolise the growing distance between Mr Howard and the electorate. It is the prism through which thousands of Australians have come to glimpse the true nature of the Prime Minister and his entourage.

And at a time when Australians are looking to their government for leadership, Malcolm Turnbull, the Minister who used to be in charge of climate change, went for a bit of follower-ship, telling this forum on May 2 that a 60% cut in Australia’s emissions – and I quote - “would be entirely futile … a 60 per cent cut in our 1.5 per cent of global emissions would have no material, global impact.”

This is a preposterous proposition. If every country of our equivalent size took this morally and intellectually bankrupt view, what prospects would there be for concerted domestic or international action on climate change?

I promise you: you will not hear me describe action on climate change as futile.

Mr Turnbull’s comments are at odds with the majority of Australians, at odds with the Australian Business and Climate Group – whose members include Anglo Coal, BP, Rio Tinto, Santos and Westpac – who have said:


But still the Government avoids responsibility.

Then we witness the odd outbreak of truly bizarre climate scepticism which has been the staple of the Howard Government for years.

Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane, saying just a year ago:


Conservation and Forestry Minister, Senator Eric Abetz’s previous comments:


Delve deeper within the army of Coalition climate change sceptics in Parliament and one finds oneself, as I said in Question Time last month,  on another planet. Literally.

Four Coalition MPs – David Tollner, Dennis Jensen, Jackie Kelly and Danna Vale – said just last month – in a formal parliamentary report :


When I met recently with a delegation of visiting parliamentarians from abroad, representing a wide spectrum of political views, they expressed real puzzlement at this peculiarly Australian political phenomenon of still arguing about the degree and seriousness of climate change.

I said before that climate change was an intergenerational issue. Dennis Jensen et al must think it’s an interplanetary one!

But whatever planet the Coalition officially resides on, it is clear they lack conviction on climate change. So instead, we see division. We encounter hyperbole, highly qualified language and piecemeal initiatives.

Instead of having an ambitious strategy they clutch at these pathetic defences.

The Coalition is the Tuvalu of Australian politics:  desperately pushing back a climate change tide that threatens to wash away their government. And all the while downplaying the real crisis of climate impacts that our South Pacific neighbours are grappling with for some time.

After 11 years of inaction on climate change the Howard legacy is clear.

Australia is more vulnerable, and less prepared for the impact of climate change.

Australia is missing out on the many opportunities to harness the economy to meet the climate change challenge.

The Howard government position has delayed the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, frustrated market solutions and the technological and business opportunities to build a low carbon economy and substantial export markets.

Australia’s future prosperity lies in us being a clean energy leader. Our location offers significant opportunities, as a regional climate change innovation and services hub. And yet under Mr Howard none of this can come to pass.

APEC is a good opportunity to create strong forward momentum on climate change. But it must be remembered that it will be but one of three international meetings on this issue being held in coming months – and all discussions are preparations for the critical United Nations climate change summit being held in Bali in December.

When it comes to climate change, most of the nations of the world, along with the Australian Labor Party, agree that all roads lead to Bali.

But will Australia be on that road?

I hope by then Kevin Rudd will be Prime Minister, and Australia will be able to take that road to the Bali summit having submitted the papers to ratify the Kyoto protocol.

Welcomed by the world, Australia would be able to give the Bali conference a clear signal of its new direction under a new Labor Government.

A Rudd Labor Government would lead Australia to rise to its toughest challenge at this conference. It would give Australia a seat and a vote at humanity's table, and give Australians a voice and a vision they could be proud of.

A Rudd Labor Government would embody the trust and courage needed to protect Australia for generations to come.

Of course, the Government has an extraordinarily negative view of the UN Framework, with the Prime Minister saying as recently as 26 June that a global climate change agreement “doesn’t necessarily have to be within the UN framework”, and is constantly running down Kyoto.

One recent instalment of Kyoto bashing was Foreign Minister Downer’s attempt to denigrate the Protocol on the basis it only applied to 33% of the world’s emissions, only to be publicly reminded by the Chief of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that this wasn’t the case and that Mr Downer was underplaying Kyoto’s reach by a factor of 100% (half).

And early this week, Mr Downer was at it again, saying, incredibly, that it would be an “enormous breakthrough” if APEC was to get the developing and developed countries to agree to go forward together.

That vague remark just shows his ignorance on the matter, and the government’s refusal to accept the realities of climate change and the realities of existing climate change negotiations.

The fact is that has been happening for many years.

The UN Framework Convention I’ve mentioned includes commitments for developed and developing countries to take action on climate change, and reduce emissions. China has ratified Kyoto and has a renewable energy target of 15% by 2020.

Currently, countries are already deeply involved in negotiations for international, UN-centred post-2012 action. The current phase under Kyoto is scheduled to end in 2012, and there is already significant movement at the station.

The Bali negotiations, the latest discussions under the current framework within the UN, will be vital in determining post-2012 action, but because the Howard Government hasn’t ratified Kyoto, we are not at the table, we are not fully involved. No-one can take half-hearted efforts seriously.

Chinese Premier Hu Jintao was reported as saying to Mr Howard prior to his visit that he “…hopes all sides, guided by the principles of the UN Framework on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, can reach an agreement that is balanced and reflects their common ground.”

Yet Mr Downer and Mr Howard are now trying to set the bar way down low – at a Little Athletics height – that developing and developed countries around the world are already sailing over.

The Howard Government simply doesn’t get it.

Labor has outlined what Mr Howard needs to achieve from APEC in order to realise his early boast of this being “one of the most important international climate change meeting for 15 years”.

The Prime Minister must:

• Ratify the Kyoto protocol to show good faith in the global  negotiating process;
• Propose all APEC participants recognise the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as the principal forum for climate negotiations, building on the Kyoto protocol; 
• Argue for a global reduction that avoids dangerous, irreparable climate change, with, importantly, commitments to targets and timelines for individual countries; and 
• Prioritise the avoidance of deforestation to reduce global emissions; including bringing it within trading mechanisms and addressing trade in illegally logged timber products.
  

Since the Prime Minister claimed it would be the most important international climate change meeting for fifteen years, the rhetoric has softened, and by the beginning of this week it was simply “a most important international meeting”, with a grab bag of minor initiatives announced on a quiet news day to get some positive headlines.

But this is the benchmark we’ve laid out against which the Prime Minister’s claims will be assessed.

Any aspirational global target that is agreed at APEC which does not exceed those commitments already made will not suffice.

And Mr Howard needs to ensure APEC builds momentum through the UN to a global target supported by firm national targets.

Ironically despite the willingness, now, to countenance international targets, at home the song remains the same.

The government still refuses to set a long term target to reduce greenhouse emissions, or to implement a supportive framework for renewable energy, or even to outline its plans to reduce Australia’s skyrocketing emissions, due to increase by some 27% by 2020.

Critically it is in this decade that we must act. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made clear, global emissions of greenhouse gases need to peak within the next 10 to 15 years and then be reduced to very low levels by mid-century. Well below half the levels in 2000, if concentrations are to be stabilised at safe levels.

And feeding into this dynamic is the fact that the coming decade is the planning horizon in which decisions are due in a range of areas including infrastructure upgrades, emergency planning, insurance and energy policy.

Labor will make climate change an absolute priority.

We’ll ratify Kyoto, we’ve set a long term target for emissions reduction, we would build a national consensus – with our scientists, our business people, our fishers and farmers and families – on addressing climate change, we’d move quickly to introduce an emissions trading scheme – a national emissions trading scheme – and support clean and renewable energy.

Importantly Labor will lead a clean energy revolution.

We recognise that our long term economic interests are bound to our ability to secure the environmental health of the planet.

Under the Howard government’s approach there is a long roll call of Australian companies forced overseas to pursue clean energy opportunities: the Roaring 40s wind company; Pacific Hydro; the Global Renewables Company; and most recently Vestas, the wind blade manufacturers who, in the absence of supportive policy, will lay off 130 people by Christmas.  

In July 2006, the Australian wind energy company Roaring 40s announced it wouldn’t proceed with wind power projects worth $550 million in Tasmania and South Australia because of a lack of Federal Government support.  That would have created over 200 fulltime construction jobs;

In February 2007, Pacific Hydro announced it was investing $500 million in Brazil because Australian renewable energy projects had been stalled by the Government's refusal to ratify the Kyoto protocol;

In March 2007, the Australian company Global Renewables announced a $5 billion deal in the UK to cut greenhouse pollution. They had to go to Britain to realise their ambitions.

On top of that, you have leading Australian clean energy experts like Dr Zhengrong Shi and David Mills going to China and the United States respectively to create new wealth and climate change solutions.

We used to lead the world in solar energy technology, now too many of our solar stars are overseas.

That’s been the Howard Government approach – exporting Australian clean energy jobs, stopping vital investment in Australia, allowing a clean energy brain drain.

Labor’s approach is different.  

Under a Rudd Labor Government, Australia will be a clean energy hub for the Asia Pacific.

We have the ideas, we have the know how, we have the people.  

We just need the incentives and support from government.

And the potential is huge.

The global market for renewable energy is set to be worth US$750 billion a year by 2016.

The Australian company I’ve just mentioned, Roaring 40s, has signed a $300 million deal to provide three wind farms in China, and that's just the tip of the iceberg in a country with a substantial renewable energy target.

We offer the perfect location from which low carbon economies can be built and supported.

We want other Australian companies to seize the opportunities.  That's good for the environment and good for the Australian economy.

APEC could be a forum to discuss and announce bilateral clean energy export deals. But I doubt we will see any such commitments in action this week.   

Instead of trading in the currency of clean energy, we are already seeing nuclear deals – opening the way for Australia to be the world’s nuclear waste dump.

There are two major barriers to the establishment of a strong Australian clean energy export industry:

• The first is the absence of a strong domestic clean renewable energy industry. For eleven years the Government has undermined its potential. It has failed to encourage the industry and now by ruling out increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target there cannot be a strong domestic industry to build upon.
• The second is the absence of expertise within Austrade and Foreign Affairs to promote Australian clean energy companies.
  

Clean energy is central to Australia’s future, and there can be no excuse for these barriers.

That’s why today I am pleased to announce a Rudd Labor Government will establish a $ 15 million Clean Energy Export Strategy.

The key elements of the Clean Energy Export Strategy include:

• Building capacity within Austrade to work with individual clean, renewable energy firms to become export ready; and
• Building capacity in clean energy growth markets in China, India, Japan and the United States to facilitate export opportunities.
  

I am also pleased to announce today the establishment of a new $20 million Clean Energy Enterprise Connect Centre.

Through the Clean Energy Enterprise Connect Centre, small and medium sized enterprises concentrating on clean, renewable energy will be able to:

• Find and adapt the latest research and technology;
• Have their business benchmarked against best practice and get help in solving identified problems; 
• Access prototyping and testing facilities to turn innovative ideas into new products; and 
• Identify export markets and become export ready.
  

The Clean Energy Enterprise Connect and the Clean Energy Export Strategy will help drive the development of a strong Australian clean energy industry.

These programs are an important stepping stone to a clean energy future, and build on our other announcements, including:

• Substantially increasing the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target;
• Up to $ 10,000 in low interest loans for Australian families to undertake practical water and energy measures in their homes; 
• Rebating for rooftop solar power systems and for solar hot water across Australia; and 
• The establishment of a $50 million Australian Solar Institute and a $50 million geothermal initiative.
  

And there are – of course – more to come.

Conclusion

The environment is centre stage in our political life now, and that frankly is where I think it should be.

I’ve given much time and energy over the years working to secure its mainstream pre-eminence.

It was a privilege to do so then, and now as an elected Member of Parliament and a Shadow Minister of Kevin Rudd’s team I strongly affirm my continuing commitment to that cause.

The challenge of climate change, vast in scale as it is, presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to set Australia on a path which sees us preserve the extraordinary beauty and bounty of our natural heritage as we build a sustainable society, with an economy that is good for the planet.

Labor is ready, willing and able to take on that task.

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