Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I too was at one of the climate rallies—the one in Melbourne on Friday, where tens of thousands of people marched in solidarity to see our government commit on the world stage to much more ambitious action when it comes to tackling catastrophic global warming. It was terrific to see so many ordinary people—mums, dads, families and so on—join together to call for more ambition. I think that is a reflection of the fact that a big change is happening within the Australian community—among business leaders, people who are very concerned about the direction our country is headed when it comes to attracting new investment. There is also a change in the political wind. We saw the announcement from the ALP, which I certainly welcome, of a 45 per cent reduction in levels by 2030. I think that is a good step forward—light in detail, no plan for getting there, but at least it has been put on the table by the ALP.

So, there is action here in Australia, and there is so much going on right around the world. The fastest-growing segment of China's energy generation sector is solar power. In the US, emissions standards and regulation are in place to help drive that change. California is committing to ambitious renewable energy targets. That is the eighth biggest economy in the world. In the UK we have seen the commitment to phase out generation from coal fired power. There are so many things happening internationally, but Australia is showing itself to be an international laggard when it comes to action on climate. Here we are in Paris, trumpeting the fact that we are on target to exceed our 2020 benchmark—