Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

At the request of the Leader of the Australian Democrats, Senator Allison, I move:

That the Senate—

(a)   notes the figures released by the Climate Institute, which show that:

(i)   from June 2004 to February 2007, greenhouse pollution from the energy sector in Australia increased by more than 22.5 million tonnes, despite high petrol prices and the switch in some power generation from coal to gas due to water shortages,

(ii)   22.5 million tonnes of greenhouse pollution is the equivalent of adding more than 5 million cars to the road or increasing the national car fleet by approximately a third,

(iii)   emissions from diesel and aviation fuel continued to grow and rose 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively in August 2007,

(iv)   consumption of petrol and liquid petroleum gas declined in 2006 but has levelled out and increased 0.3 per cent in May 2007, and

(v)   overall, Australia’s emissions, by May 2007, were just 4.5 million tonnes below Australia’s Kyoto target for 2010;

(b)   calls for decisive and urgent action to:

(i)   put in place an energy efficiency trading scheme to achieve reductions in electricity consumption of 2 per cent a year, and

(ii)   substantially increase the availability of alternative and renewable fuels through abandoning the proposal for excise on these fuels; and

(c)   notes that the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (2010) has effectively been reached and calls on the Government to immediately lift the target to 10 per cent by 2012 and 20 per cent by 2020.

Question negatived.

(Quorum formed)