The Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Bill 2023 has been delayed in the NSW Parliament while negotiations on amendments continue between the Government and the Greens. The Greens will support legislating further interim targets for emission reductions including the former Government's 70% reduction by 2035, however these targets must be binding to ensure the Government acts urgently to meet them and they must be the floor not the ceiling.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Climate Change Sue Higginson said "We are committed to getting the best version of climate change laws possible for NSW and that means there must be a responsibility on the Government to actually achieve the targets that will be written into law,"
"Urgent action on climate change is needed, but that doesn't mean that climate laws should be passed if they don't guarantee that adequate action is actually undertaken. The Minister has indicated that she intends these legislated targets to be binding and we are asking for that to be in the final law,"
"The Greens have been clear from the outset that targets must be in line with the science, ambitious and binding. We heard during the Inquiry into the bill that we need to reduce our emissions as early as possible, so we should be aiming for 75% emissions reduction by 2030. We also heard in the inquiry that we are currently on track to reduce our emissions by 56% by 2030, this was on 2021 calculations, which begs the question why would we legislate a less ambitious 2030 target than what we can achieve.
"We take the Government on their word that legislated targets are a floor not a ceiling so we will be including a ratchet mechanism in the bill when we come to debating the amendments next week. This will mean the new Net Zero Commission, when it is formed, will advise on more ambitious targets. Between now and when the bill comes back for debate we will keep pushing for all parties to go further and faster on climate and to listen to the science about the need to reach net zero well before 2040," says Sue Higginson.
