“This plan is a good start. It probably puts our country in the middle of the pack internationally, but we must continue to increase our ambition and the pace of transition,” says Rachel Brown ONZM, founder and CEO of the Sustainable Business Network (SBN).
“A national plan to radically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions was well overdue. We congratulate Minister Shaw in getting the support needed from his political colleagues.”
The plan targets support to help businesses reduce their emissions, particularly the big emitters and transport, energy and agriculture sectors.
"It's encouraging to see that there's going to be significant investment in improving energy efficiency in key businesses and industries, along with the transition to renewable energy,” says Rachel.
“There is also important investment in active and public transport. We would have supported an extension of the subsidy on public transport.
"It's also good to see innovative policies like the $569 million 'Scrap and replace' scheme for the Clean Car trial, which is designed to help car-dependent low income households transition to EVs."
The plan establishes a Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions funded by the Emissions Training Scheme (ETS).
"We welcome that move but would like to see the agriculture sector provide more funding for this initiative, especially as the sector doesn’t contribute to ETS revenue and at a time of record payouts in many of our prime agricultural industries. We expect to see this adjusted when a price on biological emissions is introduced,” says Rachel.
"We'd also like to see a greater focus on how we can move towards more regenerative farming systems, following the lead of the many innovative farmers who are reducing their emissions now and finding ways to farm in harmony with nature. To achieve this we need innovative approaches to fund nature-based solutions.
“SBN is concerned about under-investment in some key areas. We welcome the inclusion of circular economy and bio-economy in the plan. However the circular economy is in urgent need of greater investment from government and business.
“Behaviour change is another critically important area. Small and medium sized businesses – the backbone of our country - are looking for reliable, easy information on climate action. Our Climate Action Toolbox does help with this but smaller businesses need incentives in place for them to do the right thing.
“We need to take urgent action on climate change. We’ll be continuing to work with our many partners in business and government to accelerate that action.”
SBN acknowledges the work of many in formulating this plan, especially the Climate Change Minister James Shaw and government teams, as well as the Climate Change Commission.
We also salute the many advocates for climate action in our society, including some of our business leaders. Today’s plan is a testament to their commitment over many years and a good step in the right direction.