PLEA Network

8 November 2021, Renew Economy. NSW, ACT and South Australia in cross party push to speed transition to net zero. The New South Wales, South Australia and Australian Capital Territory governments have created a new multi-state, cross party initiative to try and fast track the shift to zero emissions, with a focus on proven and mature technologies. The Net Zero Emissions Policy Forum has been initiated by the NSW, ACT and SA governments to help sub-national jurisdictions – who tend to have more ambitious policies than national governments – address the practical challenges of achieving net zero emissions. “Taking action on climate change is an economic and environmental imperative, and this is about ensuring states and territories are working together to address it,” NSW energy minister and treasurer Matt Kean said in a joint statement. The forum is focused on getting the policies right and managing resources to enable sub national governments to grow their economies “without reinventing the wheel” and deploy “proven and mature capabilities” as well as solutions to address common obstacles in reaching net zero emissions.” This is in contrast to the federal government’s own technology roadmap, which ignores the potential of existing technologies to deliver substantial reductions in emissions in the short term, and instead focuses on unproven technologies to deliver emissions cuts some time in the future. The three states and territories involved in this deal are all leaders in the transition to renewables in Australia. Read more here