Climate emergency declaration passes in South Australia Parliament

SA Climate Minister Susan Close introduced the climate emergency motion, which passed both houses on May 31, reaffirming the urgent need to decarbonise the South Australian economy and shift to renewable sources of energy.

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The declaration was welcomed by the Conservation Council, but the state opposition says more could have been done to protect the state environment department.

Dr Close last year tabled a petition with more than 10,000 signatures from South Australians demanding immediate action on climate change.

She said the state government was committed to serious action on climate change including building a hydrogen power plant and restoring environmental flows to the River Murray.

The Government is also poised to repeal the Liberals' tax on electric vehicles and their changes to the Native Vegetation Act which enabled developers to circumvent planning and native vegetation laws in Flinders Chase National Park.

Ten years of inaction and climate culture wars from federal and state Liberals have left Australia badly exposed to the effects of climate change, as well as stymying investment in the renewable energy sector.

South Australia can't afford to wait any longer for real action on climate change.

The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirms that

global average temperatures. The report showed that some parts of Australia had already recorded increased average temperatures of 1.4C since 1910 and a significant rainfall decrease across southern Australia, with further drops in annual rainfall expected.

"We really need to focus on supporting projects and policies which are climate friendly and encourage growth in resilient low-carbon businesses," Dr Close said.

"The Malinauskas government will position South Australia to take advantage of the global need to rapidly reduce emissions.

"Labor sees the climate crisis as a jobs opportunity, especially in the regions where many renewable projects are located.

"Our world-leading hydrogen jobs plan will help to power green manufacturing in South Australia, creating jobs and providing clean energy.

"After years of Liberal inaction on climate change, it's time to act and that starts with acknowledging the seriousness of the climate crisis."

The SA opposition says it unsuccessfully tried to amend the legislation to "include practical action such as transforming the South Australian economy to zero net emissions by 2050, and to 50 per cent by 2030".

The opposition also wanted the the Department for Environment and Water to be quarantined from budget cuts.

Opposition leader David Speirs said Labor and the Greens inexplicably did not support the amendments.

"This just shows Peter Malinauskas and Susan Close are more interested in chasing headlines than delivering real outcomes," Mr Speirs said.

"Declaring a climate emergency without including any practical action is the very definition of virtue signalling and gesture politics.

"Our amendments were sensible and achievable but staggeringly Labor and the Greens joined forces to vote them down.

"South Australia has been a world leader when it comes to climate change action through a bi-partisan approach over decades.

"This should be celebrated as we have shown our work across parliaments, across governments and across political parties of both persuasions is that you can grab hold of the economic opportunity, create those green industries and transition your economy to a decarbonised economy, creating lots of jobs, creating intellectual property, creating solutions, both in emissions mitigation and in adapting our society, because inevitably the climate is changing.

"The hypocrisy here is that while yesterday Labor were declaring a climate emergency, tomorrow they will deliver a budget which will slash expenditure for the Department of Environment and Water."

The state's peak environment body strongly welcomed what it says was the long overdue focus on funding for the Environment Department in the lead up to tomorrow's state budget.

Conservation SA chief executive Craig Wilkins says it comes as SA joins the ACT Parliament and a very large number of local councils to formally declare a climate emergency, with the support of all sides of politics.

"After tens of millions of dollars and huge numbers of staff have been ripped out of the Environment Department's operating budget over the last few years, we are definitely hoping this year's budget will be the start of a rebuild," Mr Wilkins said.

"This Department is often seen as an easy target for Treasury savings.

"Over the past 10 years, we estimate that over 500 staff have been let go. That's a shocking hit to one of the smaller branches of Government.

"Over the last four years alone the Environment Department has had to find around $34 million in savings. That's equivalent to about 100 staff.

"Yet in the midst of an extinction crisis, and with storms on the horizon in climate and water we desperately need the relevant arm of Government to have the capacity to forecast and plan ahead, not be scrambling to play catch up.

"Due to previous cutbacks, there is precious little capacity anymore for baseline science in the Department. That's a massive risk to our state.

"As we've seen with COVID, we need good science to inform good decision making.

"And decisions around water, climate and healthy landscapes will drive our state's productivity and our ability to attract investment and people and grown our own food.

"While the last State Government invested in National Park visitor infrastructure and facilities, the underlying operational budget to manage the Park system continued to freefall.

"The creation of the Glenthorne National Park is a good example. All the funding was allocated to setting the place up. But there was no new money for staffing and maintaining this new Park.

"As a result, the Environment Department is forced to stop funding other vital work in order to operate basic facilities across the state.

"Previous Labor governments have also been guilty of stripping money out of the Environment Department, so we are definitely looking for a fresh approach from the Malinauskas Government.

"The good news is that it looks like all the new Government's biodiversity and nature protection election commitments will be funded by new money, so the Department will not be forced to find the money internally by cutting other programs," he said.

Mr Wilkins said yesterday's formal declaration of a Climate Emergency by both houses of the SA Parliament follows a concerted community push, including a petition which attracted more than 10,000 signatures.

"We warmly congratulate Deputy Premier Susan Close for moving the Climate Emergency Motion, and the SA Parliament in both chambers for supporting it. It is a welcome and long overdue recognition of the dire situation we face," Mr Wilkins said.

"Now with the formal declaration of a climate emergency the focus from the State Government must be on building our state's capacity to tackle the emergency ahead of us.

"And to recognise that we need to stop doing the things that make the climate worse.

"That includes stopping all exploration for new gas, coal and oil and shifting funding for transport away from big road projects towards electric vehicles, public transport, walking and cycling," he said.