2019-08-22
The ACT Government has today lent its support for the students ‘Strikers for Climate Action’ and reaffirmed its declaration that the ACT is in a state of climate emergency.
"The ACT, as the nation’s climate action capital, is proud today to declare our support for the student strikers for climate action,” said Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Shane Rattenbury.
“The students are the future. And thanks to inaction on the part of the Federal Government over many decades, they are the ones that will have to deal with the consequences of a warming planet.
“Climate change is the challenge of a generation. Our future depends on the decisions before us today – cutting emissions, leaving coal in the ground, embracing the renewables revolution. The message from these students to politicians and decision-makers across the country is clear: they want to see action, and they want to see it now. In this, they have our full support.”
It comes as the ACT recently became the first state or territory jurisdiction in Australia to declare a climate emergency.
“As the first Australian state or territory to declare a climate emergency, we are being clear in our understanding of the urgency, and our ambition to respond,” Minister Rattenbury said today.
“From now on, every time the Government makes a decision we must ask ourselves: what does this decision mean for climate change, for emissions, and for the climate crisis we need to avert? If it is not consistent with reducing emissions, then we need to think again,”
“We're proud of our world-leading climate action efforts. But with so much at risk, there's so much more that we can, and must, do.
“As the strikers have made clear, we must act as though our house is on fire, because it is,” Minister Rattenbury added.
“The ACT is nation-leading when it comes to taking action on climate change. We understand the potential consequences of not acting. Importantly, we understand that today’s children and young people will live in the world that legislators and policy makers like the members in this Assembly leave them,” Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Yvette Berry said.
“This Government believes in student voice and agency, as demonstrated through the Future of Education strategy, and I support the right of students to take student action.
“Participation in activism such as the climate strike is a learning experience in itself. School and education doesn’t just happen in class. In fact the issue of sustainability and action on climate change is part of the Australian Curriculum.
“It is inspiring that ACT students are mobilising to demand climate action, and this government supports them,” Minister Berry said.