All new coal, oil and gasoline initiatives in Queensland can be banned and the state’s fossil gas exports phased out inside seven years underneath legal guidelines being proposed by the Greens.
Greens MP Michael Berkman will desk laws in parliament to wind down the fossil gas business by 2030 in a bid to fulfill Australia’s Paris Agreement obligations to restrict world warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial ranges.
He says the proposed legal guidelines may even power the state authorities to attract up a transparent plan to transition coal and gasoline employees into different industries by the top of the last decade.
“Resource workers deserve a long-term plan for their future, yet they’ve been excluded from the government’s climate policy,” Mr Berkman stated in a press release on Tuesday.
“It’s time for a real conversation about what’s on the other side of coal and gas for Queensland.
“Fossil fuels are on the way in which out and denying this would possibly not put meals on the plates of coal miners – not on this technology, or the following.”
The Greens MP said the transition for coal and gas workers could be backed by a government diversification fund, such as that proposed by the Australian Greens.
He said he expected the Queensland Resources Council to reject his bill, but he was more interested in acting on the science rather than pressure from the lobby group.
Mr Berkman said the state government had a plan for fossil fuel power generation workers, so it was essential for other fossil fuel workers to have a clear future.
“We dragged the federal government kicking and screaming to ship a closure timeline for Queensland’s coal-fired energy stations, however they’re silent on the challenges dealing with the inevitable local weather transition within the useful resource business,” he stated.
“Labor’s local weather plans are nugatory in the event that they proceed to assist new coal and gasoline.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
