Zali Steggall reveals plan for net zero, says current disasters just “tip of the iceberg”

Independent MP Zali Steggall has unveiled a five-step plan to get Australia to net zero emissions by 2050 – including targeted support for more renewables, electric vehicles, and green manufacturing – in an effort pressure current and future governments to respond to emergent threats posed by climate change.

Steggall launched the plan at a Climate Leadership Forum in Manly on Thursday, which includes a medium-term target to cut emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2030, along with a call for the passage of Steggall’s proposed Climate Change Bill.

The plan includes a commitment to an “orderly transition” to 80 per cent renewable energy by 2030, along with investments in energy efficiency measures, while stopping the development of new coal or gas developments.

Steggall said the recent release of a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warns of an increasingly extreme global climate fuelled by rising temperatures, and the severe flooding that is currently impacting parts of Queensland and New South Wales, both underpinned the urgency of decisive action on climate change.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that what we are experiencing with historic floods in northern New South Wales is just the tip of the iceberg if we don’t urgently reduce emissions and arrest global warming,” Steggall said.

“The IPCC report shows we are woefully unprepared for the coming decades. This alarming report is another urgent reminder that Australia must rapidly decarbonise if we are to limit devastating climate change impacts caused by global warming. The record breaking floods we are seeing now drive this dire truth home.”

“Putting aside the environmental and health costs, our economies simply won’t cope with this kind of repeated disruption. This is why it is so important that even amongst disasters we focus on solutions. We need leadership. To address this crisis, today I am releasing a plan: ‘5 Steps to Net Zero’.”

The plan includes a target for a minimum 76 per cent target for new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, and a goal to halve emissions from the production of heavy industrial products like green steel, green aluminium and green hydrogen with the support of government incentives.

Steggall would also seek to actively draw down greenhouse gas emissions, by dedicating at least 8 million hectares for tree planting and soil carbon sequestration, creating a new Commonwealth Sequestration Scheme to provide concessional loans grants to landholders for abatement projects.

Steggall has sought support for her Climate Change Bill in federal parliament, which would formally legislate an Australian commitment to zero net emissions by 2050 and establish an independent expert advisory commission to guide the federal government on appropriate climate change policies.

The five-step plan also includes a call to mandate the preparation of National Climate Change Risk Assessments and National Adaptation Plans as part of the federal government’s response to the growing threat posed by climate change.

Steggall said there had been a policy vacuum left by the Morrison government and would use her new plan to push for more effective action.

“The 5 Steps to Net Zero forms the best policy response to the climate crisis. Where The Coalition’s plan for net-zero is bereft of policies that will get us there, the 5 Steps contain off the shelf policies that would decarbonise sectors of the economy like energy, transport, industry and agriculture as well as unlock a new wave of growth and jobs,” Steggall said.

“With the undeniable call for swift action represented by the IPCC report and extreme weather events, now is the time to rise to the challenge and implement the 5 Steps to Net Zero.”

Steggall will seek re-election as the member for Warringah at the forthcoming federal election after unseating former prime minister Tony Abbott from the Sydney North-Shore electorate in 2019.

The success of Steggall, and other independents, including Helen Haines and Rebekha Sharkie, have inspired a growing number of “climate independent” candidates seeking to unseat vulnerable Coalition parliamentarians at the next election, targeting the Morrison government’s failures to set meaningful climate change policies.