Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is part of a package of very important legislation to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Program.

For more than three decades, ever since the ozone crisis emerged, this has been one of our most important pieces of environmental policy.

It regulates the manufacture, import, export, use and disposal of ozone-depleting substances and synthetic greenhouse gases.

And it implements our international obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, described the Montreal protocol as 'perhaps the single most successful environmental agreement to date'.

And when you look at the progress that has been achieved—taking us from the depths of fear in the 1980s, to global agreement and, more importantly, action, to relative confidence today—it's hard to disagree with that assessment.

Australians my age will remember that the ozone crisis as it emerged in the public imagination was deeply concerning.

It was a formative event for many people, which clarified our changing relationship with the natural world.

It was also one of the first truly global environmental moments—when we realised just how interconnected we were as human beings; and when we understood our immense power to alter this planet, our home.

What made it even more unsettling at the time was that this destructive power came from some of our most familiar domestic appliances.

In 1974, scientists discovered that chemicals used in cans like hairspray and shaving cream—chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons—were floating into the atmosphere and breaking down the ozone layer.

Obviously, that was very bad news—because it's the ozone layer that protects us from the awesome violence of the sun.

As a NASA paper put it, without the ozone layer, 'the sun's intense UV radiation would sterilise the earth's surface'.

Scientists knew that the situation was bad, but it wasn't until the 1980s that they learned just how bad.

In 1985, a group of physicists published a paper in Nature, showing a drastic collapse in ozone coverage above Antarctica.

The results were so shocking that one of the authors, stationed in Antarctica, thought his instruments were broken.

As news of the ozone hole spread from scientific journals to the mainstream press, there was worldwide alarm.

That's because a degraded ozone layer could:

When people discovered this, it produced an understandable panic, but crucially, it also produced an unprecedented global response.

It's fitting that we're introducing these bills just shortly after World Ozone Day, which was on 16 September. That day commemorates the signing of the Montreal Protocol 35 years ago.

The Montreal Protocol was a truly great achievement.

People at the time may have understood the seriousness of the problem, but of course understanding the seriousness of a problem doesn't always mean you get agreement about the solution.

There were countries that produced these chemicals as well as the appliances that used them, like fridges and airconditioners.

There were developing nations that wanted the option of producing them in the future as wealthy countries had already done.

There were companies that didn't want to accept that their products were causing a global catastrophe. Some of those companies outright rejected the science.

The genius of the Montreal Protocol was its ability to bring these groups together, to provide sceptical parties with alternatives to CFCs, and to establish a pathway forward that most people could live with.

The protocol showed that global environmental cooperation was possible. It showed that we could overcome national self-interest and the tragedy of commons.

It showed that through sensitive diplomacy we could find rational answers to our most difficult collective problems.

Proudly, Australia was in the original group of countries that supported the protocol.

Of course, in the face of initial opposition, it was then Prime Minister Bob Hawke and his Minister for the Environment, Graham Richardson, who moved to ratify the agreement immediately at home.

We did this in partnership with other leading countries, particularly in Scandinavia but also the United States.

The American president at the time, Ronald Reagan, wasn't always the most enthusiastic environmentalist.

But on this issue he proved that cooperation could cut across political lines, and he helped secure the international agreement that was needed to land the protocol.

In 1987, 24 nations signed on.

Today amazingly, magnificently, every nation in the world, 198 nations, are parties to this agreement.

Most importantly, thanks to this global effort, the ozone layer is projected to recover by the middle of the century.

Because of the Montreal Protocol the hole in the ozone layer is closing.

Sometimes we don't celebrate this crisis avoided because we don't acknowledge the bullet we dodged, even if it was our hard work and planning that ensured the crisis never happened.

But we really should celebrate our success on the ozone layer, and we should reflect on it.

If people sometimes feel despair, if they begin to feel hopeless, they should remember this: successful global action is possible.

It's not just possible—we have a living example of how we have achieved global cooperation. We're still doing it. It's made a life-changing, world-changing difference.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Montreal Protocol will have the effect of preventing 443 million cases of skin cancer. It will save 2.3 million lives from that terrible disease and it will prevent 63 million people from developing eye cataracts.

That is in the United States alone. If you think about that, on a global scale, the human misery avoided because we took this global action, you see the scale of what we have achieved.

The theme of this year's World Ozone Day was 'global cooperation, protecting life on Earth'.

It's appropriate, because that's what protecting life on earth requires: mature, good faith, truly international collaboration.

Australia is a leader in this global effort, and we will continue to be a leader in this global effort—progressively phasing down our use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.

Changes in this bill lay the foundation for future initiatives to reduce synthetic greenhouse gas emissions, and to help Australia meet its 2030 Paris target.

These amendments will allow for the implementation of additional measures to reduce these emissions, through regulations as appropriate.

This could include actions to further reduce HFC emissions beyond what is currently in place under Australia's HFC phase-down, or to reduce emissions of other gases controlled under the legislation.

This bill will support our ongoing program to protect the ozone layer.

What might be less known is how it also supports our other efforts on climate change.

That's because HFCs are potent greenhouse gases, up to 4,000 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide.

By reducing HFCs, global action following the Montreal Protocol is estimated to prevent the equivalent of 420 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere by the year 2100.

This represents more than 10 years of present-day emissions from all human activities.

And these reductions will prevent up to 0.4 degrees of global warming by the end of the century.

Australia's action on HFCs will be an important contributor to meeting our new emissions reduction target of a 43 per cent reduction by 2030.

We are on track to reach an 85 per cent reduction of HFC consumption by 2036.

Australia has a strong program to protect the ozone layer and to manage synthetic greenhouse gases, and we need to keep it strong.

And after years of delay on climate policy—and after experiencing natural disasters aggravated by global warming—Australians are demanding real action.

That's why, as one of our first actions in this 47th Parliament, we passed legislation to increase Australia's climate ambition.

I want to thank all members and senators who offered constructive support to achieve this aim.

The Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Program is another example of what Australia can do to protect our climate and meet our ambitious emissions reduction targets.

We have an extremely supportive industry here in Australia, who have worked alongside government to embrace alternative technologies and to manage environmentally harmful chemicals.

Taking just the refrigeration and air conditioning sector, for example, Australia has a world-leading approach to managing these substances from importation, right through the supply chain and their use in the economy, and then at end-of-life.

Australia has an established innovative product stewardship scheme, which collects used refrigerants and turns their potent greenhouse gases into harmless salty water.

We're also partnering with industry to assist our neighbours in the Pacific, to help them phase out chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and to improve the skills of their industry:

By working together, across national boundaries, we can move away from refrigerants that damage our shared environment.

Australia is committed to continued global leadership on ozone layer protection. And this bill will make Australia's program even stronger.

It will reduce administrative burdens on businesses and make the legislation easier to understand, reducing the opportunities for unintentional non-compliance.

It will also introduce measures to modernise and strengthen enforcement powers.

This bill will ensure that the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act continues to provide protection for our environment and human health, and plays a strong role in Australia's action on climate change.

That's why I'm very proud to be introducing this legislation today.

Debate adjourned.