Get Involved - Parliament

Climate Change and Natural Disasters

Published on: October 2022

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-128699

Climate Change and Natural Disasters

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (18:32:26):

We hear in this place stories of the lives impacted and lives lost due to catastrophic natural disasters. Every community, including my own, is concerned. We saw images of the worst flood on record hitting Lismore, which only weeks later was to be inundated once again. Just yesterday, another life was lost in western New South Wales, and to think that only a couple of years ago we were experiencing some of the worst bushfires and worse droughts on record. That is climate change.

For decades we have been warned that it will be cheaper to reduce our emissions than to pay for the cost of a changing climate. Unfortunately today, through the lives, homes and property of the people of this State, we are seeing this come true. That is why we need to have a conversation about what we can do to protect our people from extreme weather events like floods that are devastating families and taking lives here in New South Wales and Victoria that climate change is bringing about. The Premier and the New South Wales Government are right to commit to raising the Warragamba Dam wall, but we should also be having a conversation about what we can do to accelerate our emissions reductions because, until we get to net zero, we will continue to add to the climate emergency which day in and day out we see people bearing the brunt of. We owe it not just to our future generations but to the people living in New South Wales today to do as much as we can to reduce emissions.

I am proud to be a member of this Parliament, which two years ago voted for the biggest renewable energy policy in Australia's history. I am also proud to be a member of the Government that has taken huge action on climate change. This Government has set a science-aligned target of net zero by 2050 and a 50 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030. But the reality is that those targets are only enough to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius. The natural disasters that have seen ravage our State are barely above one degree Celsius of global warming. We cannot afford to let global warming get to two degrees Celsius. We cannot afford to wait until 2050 to get to net zero. We must move faster. We must look at other jurisdictions and organisations around the world that are setting ambitious net zero targets.

Everyone said that reducing emissions in agriculture would be too hard, but Meat & Livestock Australia has committed to net zero by 2030. Data centres are some of the biggest sources of emissions due to their energy intensity, but Microsoft is already at net zero. It will be carbon negative by 2030 and it has a target to undo all the emissions it has have ever emitted by 2050. As a large, developed economy there are limits to what we can do, but I have every confidence in the ingenuity, creativity and determination of the people of our State. I believe we can get to net zero faster than 2050. I believe we can play our part in achieving the Paris goal of limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. To do that we must bring forward our net zero target. While we are having a healthy conversation about making a $3 billion investment to raise the Warragamba Dam wall, we should also have a conversation about what else we can do not just to adapt to our changing climate but to limit the extent to which our climate changes in the first place.

For decades we did not take action on the science and economics that told us it was better to invest in changing our future rather than responding to the natural disasters when they happened. We did not heed that advice, but there is no reason why we cannot act today on the science and economics, and accelerate our transition to a net zero economy. Next month delegates from across the world will come together in Egypt. We need every major economy to lift their ambitions to ensure the world is on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. It can take as long as eight years to build a new transmission line so there is a limit to how fast we can go, but we must go as fast as we can. We must set deep targets for 2035 on the path to net zero as soon as possible, and no later than 2045. Achieving that should not be partisan. Whether people vote blue, green or red, whether people live in the bush or in the city, whether families have called Australia home for 200 years or two years, we must all respond to this initiative because it is in our national interest and our children's future interest. I look forward to working on achieving that target with every member of this House for as long as I am in public office.