The NSW Labor party has stepped into campaigning mode, announcing it would introduce a private member’s bill seeking to legislate a net zero emissions target by 2050.
Announced in Bega, one of five NSW seats due to hold byelections in the next few months, by opposition leader Chris Minns, the announcement will seek to put pressure on a Coalition government which has trumpeted its own ambitious emissions targets.
The Coalition government in NSW has already committed to halving its emissions by 2030, a target underpinned by clean energy legislation passed with multi-party support last year which will see the state build 12 gigawatts of clean energy and 2GW of energy storage in the next decade.
The NSW energy and environment minister, Matt Kean, this week insisted the party would “get to net zero by 2050”, but declined to support legislation to commit to the target because, he said, the goal was already committed through “regulation”.
“Well, what we will do is have the policies in place to ensure that we hit the target, but do so in a way that’s going to reduce our emissions and grow our economy,” he told Sky News.
But Labor says the government’s target of net zero by 2050 is merely “aspirational”, and says it will introduce a bill to mirror legislation already in place in Victoria and the ACT.
The party says it would also establish a net zero commission to develop the plan to reach the net zero by 2050 target, as well as monitoring its progress and trajectory “including impacts on jobs and industry, as well as energy prices”.
“This legislation is an important step forward, but it should not be a big leap for Dominic Perrottet and Matt Kean to join with the opposition and support legislating these targets,” Minns said.
“It will give business, industry, and the environment certainty that these targets will be law regardless of who is in power in New South Wales.”
The announcement comes as the state prepares for five byelections brought on by a swathe of resignations. Following the departure of former premier Gladys Berejiklian last month amid the Icac scandal, the former deputy premier John Barilaro, transport minister Andrew Constance, Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons and former Labor leader Jodi McKay all announced they would quit state politics.
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