The ACT Government today informed the community that the Territory will not meet our 2025 interim target of reducing emissions by 50-60% on 1990 levels and that if we stay on the current trajectory, we will struggle to achieve net zero by 2045. This reinvigorates the call for the Government to increase its ambition in tackling carbon emissions and adapting to climate change in the Territory.
Conservation Council Executive Director Dr Simon Copland says: “It’s extremely disappointing to hear that we aren’t meeting our emissions targets in the ACT. Canberrans are proud to live in a city that is leading the world on climate change, and I know many will find it shocking to hear we have fallen behind in recent years.
“What’s particularly disappointing is that the Government is not showing the ambition needed to turn this around – they brought no new climate policies to the 2024 election, have delayed the development of the next Climate Strategy for the ACT and have broken key commitments like policies to phase out wood-fired heaters.
“For such government complacency to be occurring not only in the context of overwhelming community support for bold action on climate change(1) but also in the face of increasingly stark evidence of how badly a changing climate is going to affect the ACT(2) is an insult to all Canberrans.”
Copland continued by saying this news presents the clear need to get the ACT back on track, with abundant evidence as to what we must do next (3).
Dr Copland continues:
“The ACT Government has today begun consultation on a new climate strategy for the Territory. While we are disappointed that this strategy has been delayed, this is a key opportunity to get the ACT back on track to achieving our climate targets.
“We welcome the Government’s early engagement of stakeholders and the community in developing the ACT’s next Climate Strategy. However, for this engagement to ring true, the Government needs to actually listen to the overwhelming community call for an ambitious and evidenced-based new climate strategy. Canberrans want climate ambition, not cowardice, from our government, so we can safeguard our future and once again lead the world in fairly and effectively addressing climate change.”
You can see some of the demands from the Conservation Council ACT Region for the ACT’s next climate strategy here.
We’ll be launching a campaign soon calling on the Government to take real, ambitious, action for our next climate strategy. You can find out more about that by coming to our webinar on the 11th of November. Find out more details here.