Bowen urges all-in effort to reach 2030 emissions target

FEDERAL Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen says Australia has only 80 months to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions so it can meet its 2030 climate target, and is urging the entire Geelong region to do its part.

Mr Bowen was the main attraction at the Corangamite Climate Forum, which drew a crowd of about 40 representivates from business, community groups and local government to Waurn Ponds Estate on Thursday last week.

Speaking at the forum, organised by Corangamite Labor federal member Libby Coker, Mr Bowen said he was pleased with what Labor had achieved in terms of climate policy since coming to power 11 months ago “but far from satisfied, because there is so, so much more to do”.

“We started in this last 12-month period way behind where we needed to be, and that just makes the task for all of us so much more important.”

He said holding the world as close as possible to 1.5 degrees of warming was not just important but urgent.

“That year [2030] wasn’t just chosen for fun… that’s what the science tells us. If we don’t act by then, we will be leaving it very close to too late or the task will get so much harder and more expensive.

“Seven years might seem like a long time – I’ve got to tell you, it’s tomorrow in terms of moving the big pieces of our our economy and our society that that we need to move.

“We actually needed to start 20 years ago. The next best time to start was last year.”

He said decarbonising the economy was the “biggest change we have seen since the Industrial Revolution and we’re doing it on a much faster timeframe”.

“Seven years. Or, as I like to call it, and it will be this next week, 80 months. Think how fast that passes.”

Speaking about the electricty sector, Mr Bowen said the proportion of renewables-powered electricity would need to rise from 30 per cent to 82 per cent in seven years, 40 wind turbines would need to go up every month from now until 2030, and the achievement of 60 million solar panels on roofs over the past 10 years would need to be achieved again but in only seven years.

Mr Bowen also listed industry and transport as sectors that would need considerable attention.

“We’ve got to be all in to get this done,” he said.

“If we keep going the way we have been over the past decade, we’re not going to do it.

“Some people say – and some of you might have thought at various points, and I understand and respect that view – ’43 per cent [Labor’s emissions reduction target from 2005 levels by 2030], that’s not enough, why aren’t we going for 50 or 60 or 75′?

“I admire that passion, but I’m here to tell you: this stuff is hard to do.”