Premier of South Australia

Sheraton Hotel, Poznan, Poland

As Australia’s first Minister for Climate Change, it’s a great honour to chair this opening session and to welcome you all to Poznan for the second Climate Leaders Summit.

Since the inaugural summit in Montreal three years ago, the threat of climate change has become even more stark.

The urgency in tackling this problem is reflected in the declarations ratified by two important meetings of sub-national governments over the past few months.

The Montreal declaration broadly defined the important role that sub-national governments can play in addressing climate change.

By the time the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development met in Brittany last October, the message clearly spelled out was that “urgent global action on climate change was needed”.

And just last month, the Governors Global Climate Summit held in California declared that “the magnitude and urgency of the challenges in stabilising the climate will require a level of collaboration and co-operation that is unprecedented between all levels of government around the world”.

State, Regional and Provincial governments worldwide have taken up that challenge, and I acknowledge that many of the most active and innovative administrations are represented here this morning.

We applaud examples such as Manitoba, which has established itself as a leader in the development and installation of geothermal heat pumps for homes, and Quebec, which is investing strongly in alternative fuels and became the first North American jurisdiction to introduce a fossil fuels levy to fund emissions reductions programs.

In India, Tamil Nadu is leading the way with 50 per cent of the nation’s wind power, and the Puglia Regional Government in Italy – another leader in wind - last month outlined a strategic project focused on renewable energy resources in the Adriatic area.

Scotland has set a series of ambitious targets including becoming a zero waste society by 2050, and Wales has committed itself to ensuring all new buildings are deemed to be zero carbon from 2011.

Catalonia has introduced innovative “green” transportation policies, Wallonia provides subsidies to improve the energy efficiency of schools and hospitals, and the Upper Austria Climate Change Pact aims to phase out the use of fossil fuels for heat production, among other measures.

Until a year ago, progress on tackling climate change in Australia was sadly similar to the situation in the United States, with State Governments left to do the bulk of the heavy lifting.

So I was delighted that one of the first acts of our new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, upon winning office a year ago was to add Australia’s signature to the Kyoto Protocol.

It was long overdue.

In 2006, I joined the Premier of New South Wales to launch our own discussion paper on the prospect of proposing a national emissions trading scheme, a scheme that was attacked by former Prime Minister John Howard as “doomed to fail”.

But we persisted, and the new Australian Government has committed to having such a scheme in place by the end of 2010.

Last year, the Australian State Premiers continued to lead the fight against climate change by commissioning distinguished economist Professor Ross Garnaut to undertake an exhaustive Climate Change Review.

We decided that the Garnaut Report would provide for Australia what Sir Nicholas Stern gave Britain - an updated report on the escalating threat and an economic roadmap to show how Australia can not only play its part, but become a leader, rather than a follower, in tackling climate change.

Professor Garnaut concluded that “it is a simple fact of life on earth that there is going to be no successful mitigation of the climate change problem without a truly global effort”.

By taking a leadership role, the Australian States were able to fill the national policy void that existed in tackling climate change.

But in other areas, progress has been slow.

A lack of co-operation meant that precious time was lost in addressing one of Australia’s most serious climate-related problems - the rapidly-declining health of our major mainland waterway, the Murray-Darling River system.

After more than a century of over-irrigation licenses plus a prolonged and devastating drought, the River system is facing an unprecedented crisis.

Tragically, the intransigence of the State of Victoria added unnecessary delays to delivering a rescue plan for the River system, demonstrating that regional governments are not always leaders, and can put parochialism ahead of environmentalism.

Last week, after decades of bickering, legislation was finally passed to hand over the States’ constitutional powers for managing the River to the Federal Government and an independent commission.

Colleagues, the current world economic crisis – as serious as it is - must not divert, prevent or, worse, give us an excuse from boldly addressing the climate change issue facing us all.

Even though South Australia is home to just eight per cent of Australia’s population, we have committed ourselves to a leadership role in tackling climate change.

Our State is a test-bed for the carbon-constrained future.

Last year, we became the first Australian State - and the third jurisdiction in the world - to pass dedicated climate change legislation that includes a target to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60 per cent of 1990 levels by the end of 2050.

This law commits us to generating 20 per cent of our power needs from renewable green sources such as solar and wind by 2014, and we are on track to achieve this internationally ambitious target significantly ahead of schedule.

Under our climate change law, we are entering into a series of agreements with industry sectors, including our wine and property development industries, to reduce emissions.

We are also on track, as a State, to achieve the Kyoto target of emissions levels during the period 2008-2012.

I firmly believe that we must all set hard targets - not soft, easy to attain goals - and ensure our progress is independently verified if we are to make a difference.

To ensure South Australia’s targets are met, and to verify and  report on our progress, I established a high-level, independent Climate Change Council.

We are also the national leader in the development and use of renewable energy resources, with 58 per cent of Australia’s installed wind power capacity and around 33 per cent of the nation’s grid-connected solar photovoltaic capacity.

We introduced the first solar feed-in laws in Australia, under which householders and small energy consumers using solar panels are paid at a premium rate for excess electricity that they feed back into the grid.

A Residential Energy Efficiency Scheme will come into effect next month, which will require our gas and electricity retailers to offer incentives to low-income households to adopt energy saving measures.

We are investing in the installation of – by far - the largest rooftop array of solar panels in Australia, and are supporting the development of the nation’s biggest off-grid solar power station.

We have installed solar power to some of our most high-profile public buildings such as Parliament House, our Museum and Art Gallery, our international airport and hundreds of schools where climate change is part of the curriculum.

We are retro-fitting old commercial buildings to improve their energy efficiency, and the State Government will only lease space in buildings that have an accredited energy rating of five or six green stars.

We are currently lobbying to have this adopted as the national standard.

We have more than 80 per cent of the nation’s investment in the exploration and development of geothermal energy.

The first “hot rocks” electricity will be produced in a pilot program early next year, and has the potential to be a massive source of truly emissions-free energy.

We are supporting innovative research and development projects such as the use of micro-algae to create bio-diesel.

Last week in Adelaide, I visited Origin Energy's SLIVER solar plant where the company is manufacturing solar panels that use 80 per cent less silicon than conventional solar panels.

This is a significant breakthrough, as silicon is the major cost component in solar panel manufacture.

South Australia also shows great prospects for wave energy, with some of the world’s best wave energy resource identified off our coastline.

Thirty years ago, we were the first Australian State, and one of the first in the world, to introduce a refundable deposit on drink containers in order to boost recycling and cut down on litter and landfill.

We recently doubled the amount of that container deposit, and we remain the only Australian State to have such legislation.

From May next year, massively-polluting single-use plastic carry bags will be banned in South Australia, and our State’s Zero Waste Strategy aims to have 75 per cent of all kerbside material collected to be recycled by 2010.

In addition, through our Urban Forest Program we are planting millions of native trees throughout Adelaide to help improve the city’s carbon-absorbing capacity and to conserve local biodiversity.

Colleagues, it is vitally important that we - as regional governments - put our money where our mouths are when it comes to tackling climate change.

Governments are big users of electricity, to power our hospitals, schools and other public facilities.

That’s why our State will purchase 50 per cent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2014.

We are also aiming to ensure that our Government’s operations are totally carbon neutral by 2020.

Our Ministers already are.

People expect governments to be “big” in both their vision, and in their actions.

But this does not mean that significant change can only be achieved by “big governments”.

The examples I’ve highlighted this morning show the impact that sub-national governments can make.

We must share ideas amongst each other, and it is critically important that each of us offers assistance and mentoring support to regional governments in developing nations if we are to make real progress.

We can exert pressure and influence on national governments, and get them to follow suit.

We all understand and appreciate that climate change is the greatest challenge facing our planet.

But setting hard targets before Copenhagen is, in my view, a critical first step for state and regional governments in meeting that challenge.

Thank you