A green Queensland
Queensland’s outstanding natural environment contributes greatly to our high quality of life. Our natural environment and lifestyle are second to none.
We are committed to tackling climate change, reducing our carbon footprint and protecting our natural landscapes.
Tackling climate change
- Created the first stand-alone portfolio of sustainability, climate change and innovation.
- Drawing on the best available knowledge and experience to tackle climate change – by establishing a 16-person Climate Change Council.
- Helping householders and communities reduce their carbon footprint – through the $430 million Queensland Climate Change Fund.
- Introducing the $3 million ClimateSmart Communities campaign – designed to equip Queenslanders with the know-how they need to make energy and water savings at home, including a community-based challenge to help us deliver the 'Low Carbon Diet'.
- Reducing energy demand in government buildings – with an ambitious new energy plan that will cut energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2015. That’s the equivalent of taking 48,000 vehicles off the road.
- Began a major overhaul of the government vehicle fleet – including a move to purchase cleaner and greener cars, to cut emissions by 50 per cent in 10 years. Where possible, Queensland Government agencies now purchase carbon offsets for all air travel to reduce impact of such travel on the environment.
- Encouraging public servants to use public transport – by making it tax-deductible.
Cleaner, renewable energies
- Continued to support the development of clean coal technologies – with the allocation of $300 million from the Queensland Future Growth Fund.
- Accelerating the world’s first coal gasification and carbon capture project – by providing $102 million for the Zerogen project near Rockhampton as part of the Queensland Future Growth Fund.
- Investing in solar energy – by providing 1,000 domestic solar systems to be delivered under the Queensland Solar Homes Program to helping Cloncurry become another of Australia’s solar towns.
- Putting Queensland at the cutting edge of low-emission ‘hot rocks’ electricity generation – by committing $15 million to a world-class Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence at the University of Queensland, which has the potential to produce more renewable energy than other sources.
- Introduced the Queensland Solar Bonus Scheme (Feed-in tariff) – that provides a minimum tariff of 44c/excess kw of power for all residential and small businesses that have photovoltaic solar systems connected to the power grid.
- Committing to assist all State Schools become more energy efficient and reduce their carbon footprint – with a $60 million program that will install solar panels on the roofs of our 1251 schools over the next three years.
Protecting the environment
- Committed to increase our national park estate by 2020 – by reaching a target of 7.5 per cent of Queensland.
- Officially opened the new KULLA (McIlwraith Range) National Park – a spectacular park on Cape York Peninsula that includes one of Australia’s largest undisturbed tropical rainforest areas and which is managed in a unique partnership between the Queensland Government and local Indigenous groups.
- Protecting the Great Barrier Reef – by placing a 20 year moratorium on shale oil mining in the Whitsundays.
- Working to ensure the future of Moreton Bay – by releasing a draft plan including the expansion of green zones to almost 15 per cent of the total bay area to help ensure the future of this internationally significant marine environment, which supports more than 750 species of fish and 120 species of coral.
- Confronting the crisis facing koalas in South East Queensland – by considering tighter planning and stronger protection of key koala habitats and an expanded network of road crossings.
- Protecting iconic places from inappropriate development – by using the Iconic Queensland Places Act to identify the former Noosa and Douglas shires, parts of the central Capricorn Coast and the Blackall Range as areas that help define Queensland’s character.
Last updated Monday, February 09, 2009
^ to top
