Media release – Roger Jaensch, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, 1 June 2023

Taking strong action on climate change

Tasmania’s new Climate Change Action Plan 2023-25 will invest in industry and the community to ensure we maintain our net-zero emissions advantage into the future.

Last year, the Rockliff Liberal Government committed to delivering a finalised action plan by mid-2023 as part of its nation-leading Climate Change (State Action) Amendment Bill 2021.

Following an extensive consultation process, Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Roger Jaensch, released the action plan on Thursday.

Minister Jaensch said the action plan outlined practical measures on climate change to secure a prosperous low-emissions future for our State.

“Tasmania has achieved net zero emissions for the past nine years however we must take further action to ensure we achieve our emissions target of net zero, or lower, from 2030,” he said.

“Modelling shows that, as our economy and population grow, and the risk of severe bushfires increases, we will need to do more to reduce emissions across all sectors of our economy and build resilience to the impacts of a changing climate.”

This plan is supported with $10 million for new actions including:

  • $1.2 million in financial incentives for the uptake of electric vehicles, e-bikes and e-scooters.
  • $1 million to reduce emissions from livestock.
  • $350,000 for community climate change action grants.
  • $600,000 to support land owners to increase tree plantings on their properties.
  • $500,000 to develop climate change education resources for schools
  • $250,000 to develop Tasmania’s first state-wide climate change risk assessment
  • $2 million to update Tasmania’s fine scale climate projections, so communities and industries can plan for local climate changes.
  • $500,000 to build the local government sector’s capacity to respond to the impacts of a changing climate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“We will also work with business and industry to develop emissions reduction and resilience plans for the transport, waste, energy, industrial, agriculture and forestry sectors, with $2.3 million allocated for implementation of the transport plan, due to be completed by the end of this year,” Minister Jaensch said.

The plan is available in easy-to-understand formats so that all Tasmanians can be part of the discussion on the transition to a low emissions future.

“Already more than 140 individuals and organisations have provided input into the development of this Action Plan, making it a plan to respond to climate change for Tasmania, by Tasmanians,” Mr Jaensch said.

“Our Government is committed to working with businesses, industries and the community to strengthen our world-leading emissions profile and make Tasmania a successful, clever, low-emissions economy, while protecting our environment, our brand and jobs for future generations.”

The new Tasmanian Climate Change Action Plan 2023-25 is available at  www.recfit.tas.gov.au/climate/climate_change_action_plan.

Media release – Dr Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Safe Climate spokesperson, 1 June 2023

Climate Action Plan Meaningless While Native Forests Logged

The Liberals’ Climate Change Action Plan fails at the first hurdle on the most meaningful measure we need to combat climate heating – ending native forest logging and burning.

Released the same day as a public letter to the Premier that calls on him to end native forest logging, the Liberals’ plan is silent on this, the greatest climate threat in lutruwita/Tasmania.

Ending native forest logging is the single best thing we can do reduce our state’s dangerous carbon emissions. While acknowledging the impact of global heating, the Liberals are refusing to stray from the path of ideological forest destruction.

While Environment Minister, Roger Jaensch hand-wrings on climate action, his Cabinet colleagues push ahead, scaling up logging in our publicly-owned, biodiverse and carbon-rich native forests.

It’s an urgent point in the climate crisis, with global temperatures predicted to top 1.5 degrees in the next couple of years. We have to keep carbon that’s in the ground, in the ground. It’s simple.

In their draft action plan, the Liberals outlined the best-fit emissions reduction pathway from the Tasmanian Emissions Pathway Review report. We called them out then for deceptively pretending they’d be adopting this best-fit pathway, given they hadn’t outlined the policies the report said we’d need to get there.

Predictably, the Rockliff Government’s response was not to include the policies we need to combat climate change. Instead, they’ve shifted the goal posts and removed any reference to the best-fit pathway from their final Plan completely.

The Liberals’ Plan is a glossy pamphlet reannouncing unambitious commitments with woefully tiny investments in new initiatives. There is even an assurance no new policies will be adopted – unless they get the tick of approval from their industrial masters – and no mention of our island’s carbon bank forests.

Roger Jaensch should be ashamed of this hollow, meaningless failure of a climate action plan. It’s mocks the gravity of the crisis we all confront, and fails to take the opportunity of industry invigoration.

Media release – Bicycle Network, 1 June 2023

More e-bikes good for emissions reduction

Bicycle Network welcomes the news out of today’s Tasmanian Climate Change Action Plan that the government will fund a grant program to help more people buy e-bikes.

“E-bike grant programs have worked around the world to get more people riding for transport, and ultimately cut emissions,” Tasmanian spokesperson Alison Hetherington said.

“Research is showing that even when people buy an e-bike for recreation they end up using it for transport as it’s so easy to get around on.”

“While buying an e-bike is still a lot cheaper than buying a car, it’s still a fair whack of money for many of us.

“Grant programs can work in a variety of ways – they could be no-interest loans, direct subsidies or a try-before-you buy model.

“It’s also encouraging to see the Climate Plan acknowledging the need to work with local government to get active transport infrastructure and facilities,” Alison said.

Media release – The Australia Institute, 31 May 2023

Big names unite to protect Tasmania’s forests

Federal MPs, an Olympic champion and acclaimed authors are among dozens of high-profile names urging the Tasmanian government to end to native forest logging and reinvest the money into housing, health and education.

Independent federal MPs Zali Steggall, Zoe Daniel and Dr Sophie Scamps, Olympic legend Ian Thorpe, renowned authors Richard Flanagan and Tim Winton, and 2017 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery have put their names to the open letter calling on Premier Jeremy Rockliff to protect Tasmania’s native forests.

The 67 signatories to the open letter, published in The Mercury and The Examiner on Thursday, say successive state governments have provided more than $1 billion in subsidies to the forestry industry over 20 years, money better spent on building new homes, and supporting essential services such as nursing and teaching.

Actors Claudia Karvan, Essie Davis and Miriam Margolyes, former federal Greens leaders Bob Brown, Richard Di Natale and Christine Milne, Violent Femmes bassist and MONA music director Brian Ritchie, and Lime Cordiale lead singer Oliver Leimbach have also signed on.

“Australians want to see native forests protected and are calling on the Tasmanian government to put a stop to this unsustainable industry. This can be done by supporting forestry workers to move into sustainable jobs that help, not harm, the environment,” The Australia Institute’s Tasmania Director, Eloise Carr, said.

“Native forest logging cannot go on. Tasmania needs to be on the front foot and should make the inevitable decision now.”

The open letter praised Victoria’s move to ban native forest logging from 2024 and urged Tasmania to follow suit in a win-win for the environment and economy. The majority of Tasmania’s native forests end up as wood chips and waste, while plantation pine is used for housing frames.

Blue Derby Wild is a grassroots campaign working to protect Tasmania’s native forests and Director Louise Morris is among the open letter signatories. Tasmania and NSW are the only states still dragging the chain on ditching native forest logging.

‘While other states across Australia are ending native forest logging and transitioning to a plantation based industry, the Tasmanian government is talking up removing 356,000ha of our native forests from reserves to be logged,” Ms Morris said.

“This is while the Supreme Court case brought about by Blue Derby Wild claiming systemic unlawful logging is still before the courts, and casts a serious shadow over the way in which the government oversees native forest logging in Tasmania.”

Census figures from 2021 showed just 885 people are working in forestry and logging in Tasmania. This includes plantation forestry. Meanwhile, there were 2,300 workers across all forestry, logging, wood product and paper manufacturing industries, amounting to just 1 per cent of all Tasmanian jobs.

Another open letter signatory, Dr Jennifer Sanger, who is cofounder of forest advocacy group The Tree Projects, says these workers must be supported to transition to jobs with a future such as forest rehabilitation, management and hazard mitigation.

“We need to start planning for the future by investing in plantations and other industries such as nature-based tourism. Let’s not miss out on this opportunity to create sustainable jobs for our regional communities,” she said.

“It’s time that Tasmania ends native forest logging. We need to follow Western Australia and Victoria and protect our forests. Native forest logging is the highest emitting sector in Tasmania and is the main reason that the critically endangered swift parrot is heading towards extinction.”