{"id":2161,"date":"2019-04-03T23:06:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T23:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2019-04-03T23:06:49","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T23:06:49","slug":"labor-will-act-on-climate-change-and-hand-a-better-deal-to-our-kids-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/04\/03\/labor-will-act-on-climate-change-and-hand-a-better-deal-to-our-kids-2\/","title":{"rendered":"LABOR WILL ACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND HAND A BETTER DEAL TO OUR KIDS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Shorten Labor Government will reduce pollution, invest in renewable energy and take real action on climate change \u2013 to ensure we hand on a better deal to the next generation.<br \/>\nAfter six years of chaos, uncertainty and rising pollution under the Liberals, Australians need stability and certainty on climate change policy \u2013 that\u2019s what our plan delivers.<br \/>\n<strong>Ignoring climate change is simply not an answer.<\/strong><br \/>\nAustralia needs leadership &#8211; to protect jobs, grow the economy, cut pollution and\u00a0deal with more extreme weather like droughts and floods, with natural disasters already costing the economy $18 billion a year.<br \/>\nAt the same time, Australian households are seeing their power bills soar &#8211; families and businesses are taking this into their own hands and backing renewable energy because they know more renewables means lower power prices.<br \/>\nLabor\u00a0is committed to reducing Australia\u2019s pollution by\u00a045 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030\u00a0and net zero pollution by 2050.<br \/>\nWe\u00a0are also committed to\u00a050 per cent\u00a0renewable energy in our electricity mix\u00a0by 2030.<br \/>\nLabor\u2019s plan will\u00a0tackle climate change to keep the economy growing by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>Investing in renewable energy and batteries to grow jobs and cut power bills\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><strong>\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0With almost two million Australian households having solar panels, Australians are enthusiastic adopters of renewables. Labor will empower Australians to take advantage of cheaper, clean renewable energy and storage, by offering $2000 rebates for solar batteries\u00a0for 100,000 households, with a target of 1,000,000 batteries by 2025. We will also double the original investment in the Clean Energy Finance Corporation by $10 billion, supporting new generation and storage across the country. Labor\u2019s investment will support our target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 for the nation\u2019s electricity generation, which will see cleaner and cheaper power and more than 70,000 new jobs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>Boosting clean transport and infrastructure<\/u><\/strong>\u2013 A key part of tackling pollution will be tackling\u00a0transport emissions &#8211; which make up almost 20 per cent of Australia\u2019s emissions and one of the fastest growing sources of pollution. Labor will implement\u00a0Australia\u2019s first national electric vehicle\u00a0policy,\u00a0setting a national electric vehicle target of 50 per cent new car sales by 2030 and introducing vehicle emissions standards to reduce pollution and make the cost of driving a car cheaper for consumers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>Working in partnership with business to help\u00a0bring down pollution<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Labor will\u00a0reduce pollution by big polluters over the decade by extending the existing pollution cap implemented by Malcolm Turnbull \u2013 the safeguard mechanism. Australia\u2019s\u00a0biggest industrial polluters\u00a0(about 250 \u2013 or just 0.01 per cent of all businesses)\u00a0will\u00a0be covered by Labor\u2019s scheme,\u00a0which will not include the agricultural sector.\u00a0Pollution caps will be reduced over time and Labor will make it easier for businesses to meet these caps by allowing for industrial and international offsets.\u00a0Facilities can also earn credits and make money from reducing pollution below their baselines. Labor will not\u00a0introduce a\u00a0carbon tax\u00a0or new a carbon pricing mechanism and our reforms will not raise any government revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>Supporting trade exposed industries to keep Australian businesses competitive<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Emission intensive trade exposed industries (EITEs), such as steel, aluminium and cement, face additional barriers to cutting pollution while staying competitive in global markets.\u00a0In recognition of this, Labor will provide tailored treatment for EITEs under the extended safeguard mechanism. This will ensure they face comparable impacts from climate change policies as their competitors do in relevant international markets. Labor will also establish a Strategic Industries Taskforce and $300m Strategic Industries Reserve Fund to support these industries in finding solutions to cut pollution and remain competitive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><u>Helping the land sector to cut pollution<\/u><\/strong><u>\u00a0<strong>while<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>giving farmers and the forestry industry new opportunities to earn income<\/strong><\/u>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0No one knows our land better than our farmers &#8211; they\u2019ve been leading the way in responding to climate change. The agricultural sector will be exempt from the expanded safeguard mechanism &#8211; we won\u2019t have targets for farmers. Labor wants to see\u00a0Australia\u2019s land sector\u00a0supply more affordable offsets for pollution, which will reduce the cost of abatement for business and give farmers and regional communities greater economic opportunities.\u00a0We will review and reinvigorate the carbon farming initiative,\u00a0and develop a high-quality, well-functioning offset market. Labor will also\u00a0put in place new\u00a0federal legislation\u00a0to bring broad-scale land clearing under control. Where states properly regulate land clearing, such as in Queensland, Labor will take no action.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, Labor has taken the decision not to allow the use of Kyoto credits to meet its Paris targets.\u00a0By allowing the carryover of Kyoto credits, the Liberals\u2019 already weak target effectively falls from 26 per cent to 16 per cent. Using Kyoto credits is fake action on climate change, and Ukraine is the only other country in the world to confirm they will do this.<br \/>\nLabor will restore and reform important institutions like the Climate Change Authority, and to make sure we can adapt to a changing climate, we will conduct the first ever comprehensive Climate Change Assessment on the likely and potential impacts of climate change on all aspects of Australian life.<br \/>\nOur policy has been developed in consultation with industry and experts, and it builds on already announced policies like our Energy Plan and Hydrogen Plan.<br \/>\n<strong>It\u2019s a good plan for families, for industry \u2013 and for the planet.<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Liberal Party is full of climate sceptics and hopelessly divided on climate change \u2013 Scott Morrison even brought a lump of coal into Parliament instead of a climate policy.<br \/>\nThe Liberals have helped push up power prices by having 13 different energy policies, undermining investment in renewable energy, supporting taxpayer money for new coal plants and backing power privatisations.<br \/>\nThere is only one major political party serious about real action on climate change \u2013 Labor.\u00a0 That\u2019s because we are determined to pass on a better deal to the next generation.<br \/>\nOnly Labor will deliver real action on climate change to deliver lower pollution, lower power prices and a stronger economy.<br \/>\nMore information is available at \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alp.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=942ebc4c1cf8fc522a4f4c50e&amp;id=8d35867619&amp;e=a277ce94ba\">https:\/\/www.alp.org.au\/climate_change_action_plan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Shorten Labor Government will reduce pollution, invest in renewable energy and take real action on climate change \u2013 to ensure we hand on a better deal to the next generation. After six years of chaos, uncertainty and rising pollution under the Liberals, Australians need stability and certainty on climate change policy \u2013 that\u2019s what &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/04\/03\/labor-will-act-on-climate-change-and-hand-a-better-deal-to-our-kids-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;LABOR WILL ACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND HAND A BETTER DEAL TO OUR KIDS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}