1: What is your position on global warming and climate change?2: Are we doing enough to mitigate the impact of climate change in the region?3: Do community and business leaders have a role in advocating for more action, and positioning our region to take advantage of emerging opportunities?4: What is your number one priority to help mitigate the impacts of climate change?
Today we feature the responses of Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum.
What is your position on global warming and climate change?
I defer to the scientists who have accepted that human behaviour is having an impact on our changing climate. I also accept that there are many scientists who believe that there are other factors at play in our changing climate in addition to human activity.
Are we doing enough to mitigate the impact of climate change in the region?
Australia is leading the way among all other countries in the world by a considerable margin in relation to renewable energy, particularly rooftop solar energy panels. According to a recent paper by Australian National University, Australia’s current per capita renewables deployment rate leads the world at 250 watts per person per year, ahead of Uruguay in second at 125 watts, and Germany in third at 100 watts.
Australia currently contributes approximately 1.3 per cent of global emissions. The 2030 Paris Agreement target we are working towards will see our per capita emissions decrease by more than 50 per cent, and at present we estimate we are five years ahead of these targets. Our reduction over this time, combined with changes from other countries, is expected to decrease our global contribution to approximately 0.7 per cent by 2030.
We have signed, ratified, and maintained our commitment to the Paris Agreement, unlike many of the ‘dirty’ polluting countries including Iran and Turkey, or the United States of America who will officially withdraw from the agreement altogether in November 2020.
These facts continually get ignored by those who are trying to push a narrative that Australia is not doing enough.
It is also important to remember that mitigating the impact of climate change comes at a cost. I firmly believe that we not only have a responsibility to move Australia towards a renewable energy future, but also to provide our families and businesses with access to low-cost and reliable energy.
Do community and business leaders have a role in advocating for more action?
The role of community and business leaders is to ensure that this transition towards even more renewable energy takes place in a manner that doesn’t devastate family and business budgets.
Our electricity and gas costs, both at a domestic and commercial/industrial level, have already risen significantly as we transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy. We need to be mindful that it is often the poorest families in our communities who often live in the least energy-efficient homes.
Our community and business leaders also have a role in advocating for the truth to find its way to the mainstream media.
What is your number one priority to help mitigate impacts of climate change?
My number one priority is to continue to push the fact that Australia is leading the way in mitigating the impacts of climate change, however if we all accept that our environment is drier, and that the climate is changing, then we also need to accept that we can’t apply the same rules and regulations that we’ve had in the past to this new drier environment.
At this stage, the biggest effects of climate change are being felt in agriculture. If we are going to receive less rainfall into the future, we can’t continue to have the agricultural sector carry all the cost of having less water. As it stands, we have taken too much water from agriculture in our endeavours to create a healthier river system, and we need to correct this situation to have the environment share in the compromise required by a future with less water.
We also need to accept that we have a role to play in reducing fuel loads in our forests and on our roadsides. We need to give our departments greater flexibility to carry out fuel reduction burns, and allow people an ability to clear more than just 10 m away from their house on their own land if necessary to reduce their fire risk.
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