On Friday Jon Stanhope announced the ACT Govt’s intiatives to combat climate change.
So is Jon just blowng hot air? or is this finally some sensible ideas coming from the CM?
Here are the main points (copied straight from the media release):
– renewable energy targets, requiring all electricity retailers to source 10% of their energy from renewable sources by 2010 and 15% by 2020;
– a requirement that electricity customers be offered a green product as their first choice, meaning that Canberrans will need to ‘opt out of’, rather than ‘opt into’ green energy;
– progress towards carbon neutrality in all government buildings, and a $1 million revolving loan facility to allow agencies to pursue that goal;
– $20 million over 10 years to improve energy efficiency in government housing;
– $20 million over 10 years to help schools become carbon-neutral;
– a $1 million fund to help community and not-for-profit groups improve the energy performance of their premises and to promote energy efficiency to their stakeholders;
– differential stamp duty for drivers who buy low-emission vehicles;
– more than $1 million for efficient lamps in street lights, delivering a saving of more than 1100 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year;
– a feed-in tariff, so that renewable energy fed back into the grid from micro-generation is credited at a higher rate than energy bought from the retailer;
– a commitment to make public transport a real and viable alternative to car travel for more Canberrans, with further actions and investment to be announced once a number of current inquries and consultancies have been completed;
– the complete renewal of Canberra’s urban forests;
– the planting of a million new trees;
– and free bus travel for bike riders using bus bike racks.
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