SA climate plan: Gore Hails Clear Vision

Adelaide Advertiser
Tuesday 1219/2006 Page: 1

FORMER U.S. vice-president Al Gore says South Australia's focus on renewable energy has made the state a world leader in the battle against global warming.

Mr Gore, in Australia to promote An Inconvenient Truth, his controversial documentary on the world's most pressing environmental problem, yesterday praised the State Government's efforts in promoting wind and solar energy as an example the world should follow.

SA has 51 per cent of Australia's wind power and 45 per cent of the country's grid-connected solar power.

In SA, you have probably one of the best examples of any state in the entire world where you see how leadership can make a tremendous difference in promoting renewable sources of energy," he said.

"I travel all over this planet looking at this issue and you should know that SA really does stand out. "I just wish the rest of the world, including my country, was doing a lot of the things that you now have in prospect there."

Mr Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential contest to George W. Bush after being Vice President to Bill Clinton from 1993, has returned to international prominence with the release of An Inconvenient Truth.

He was speaking via video link from Sydney, where the documentary's Australian premiere was held on Sunday night, and his views were revealed yesterday in The Advertiser PM Edition online newspaper, a new afternoon news email from AdelaideNow.

Premier Mike Rann, who said he was delighted with Mr Gore's praise, yesterday announced he would move at Labor's national convention next year to toughen the party's federal climate change policy.

Responding to Mr Gore's comments, Mr Rann told The Advertiser that improving the environment and responsible economic management were not "mutually exclusive". "What we're trying to demonstrate is that, in a small state like South Australia, we can be not just a national leader (in the environment) but a world leader as well," he said.

Federal Environment parliamentary secretary Greg Hunt agreed SA had "great potential in low-emissions energy", pointing to Prime Minister John Howard's announcement late last month that northern Adelaide would be the first "solar city" in a $53 million national trial.

But the Federal Government has rejected Mr Gore's urgings to ratify the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol on climate change, arguing Australia is already substantially reducing emissions without stinging its economy.

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane yesterday dismissed Mr Gore's documentary as "entertainment" and said he was visiting Australia "to sell tickets to a movie".

Mr Howard yesterday told Parliament that signing up to Kyoto would be against the national interest.

"I am never going to support something that will result in Australian industry and Australian jobs being exported from Australia to countries like China and Indonesia," he said. But Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said Mr Howard was "in denial" and "pussyfooting" on the issue of climate change, when it was "no longer a matter of serious dispute that we have a problem". Mr Rann said he would urge Labor's national conference to agree to a policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 60 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050 - the same as the target in Britain, New South Wales and SA.

He also will move to double Labor's renewable energy target to 10 per cent of Australia's total electricity generation.

Later this year, Mr Rann will introduce legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050 and boost SA's renewable energy use to 20 per cent of total electricity by 2014.

How SA Is Taking The Green Lead

• Legislation introduced in June to enforce greenhouse targets to cut emissions by 60 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050- the first state in the nation to do so.
• Legislation introduced in June to have 20 percent of the states electricity from renewable energy by 2014.
• SA now has 51 per cent of the nations wind power, and more than 45 percent of the nations grid-connected solar power. M Solar panels installed on the State Governments North Tce institutions, including Parliament House, and the same on 250 schools and the airport.
• The Million Trees Program aims to produce a series of urban forests, helping to improve the carbon-absorbing capacity of the city's green fringe.
• New green laws came into force in July that require all new buildings and major renovations to have solar or high-efficiency gas hot water systems.
• New rebates of up to $400 to plumb rainwater tanks into existing homes.
• ALL new homes must have plumbed rainwater tanks.
• In May, new rules were introduced requiring all new houses and major renovations to be five-star energy rated.
• The Premier is Australia's only Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change.
• In August, Mr Rann also joined NSW Premier Morris lemma and Victorian Deputy Premier John Thwaites in launching a blueprint for a proposed industry trading scheme designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions Australia-wide.