The overall government's opinion on climate change, and solutions
Dear ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment,
I am sure you know that climate change is the greatest threat to humanity, and although big city politicians can't see the effects, we are seeing the consequences in australia today. Climate change is both an economic and environmental issue, and it is important that the long term survival of the planet, the human race, and other parts of the planet's ecosystems come before short term economic gain (e.g. adani). So, what does the government think of this? and what are they doing to stop it?
i have included a link to NASA's evidence of climate change, which outlines everything the climate change deniers need to know.
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Yours faithfully,
Ashlyn Horton
Dear ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment,
You haven’t responded to me. Australia is burning, what are you doing?
Yours faithfully,
Ashlyn Horton
UNCLASSIFIED
Hello Ashlyn
I do apologise for the delay in replying to you.
Kirilly Dickson, Director, Investigations, will respond to your email but is currently on leave. She will return on Monday 13 January.
Kind regards
Megan
-----Original Message-----
From: Ashlyn Horton <[FOI #5811 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 1 January 2020 12:43 AM
To: EnvComm <[ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment request email]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - The overall government's opinion on climate change, and solutions
Dear ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment,
You haven’t responded to me. Australia is burning, what are you doing?
Yours faithfully,
Ashlyn Horton
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #5811 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This email, and any attachments, may be confidential and also privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete all copies of this transmission along with any attachments immediately. You should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Ashlyn,
Thank you for your enquiry. The current bushfire crisis is causing global and local alarm, and echoing the gravity or our climate crisis.
The Commissioner is an independent statutory position established by the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Act 1993.
The Commissioner undertakes the following functions and activities:
- Investigating complaints about the management of the environment by the Territory or a territory authority; and issues relating to ecologically sustainable development in the ACT;
- Conduct investigations as directed by the Minister;
- Conduct on the Commissioner’s own initiative, investigations into actions of an agency where those actions would have a substantial impact on the environment of the ACT; and
- Deliver state of the environment reports (SoER).
Kate Auty - our Commissioner - regularly advocates the urgency for climate change action, nationally and globally, through extensive requests to be key note speaker, or otherwise, at forums and events.
Our facebook and twitter are used consistently as a tool for raising awareness and action.
All of our investigations since 2017, have highlighted the extensive implications of climate change and sought action in their recommendations (refer to them here https://www.envcomm.act.gov.au/publicati... ).
In 2017 we reviewed the ACT Government's policy responses on climate change in the Implementation Status Report (https://www.envcomm.act.gov.au/publicati...)
The ACT Government has provided leadership, along with other states such as South Australia, in the absence of Federal action (refer page 15..)
The ACT's performance in achieving 100 % renewable electricity by 2020 is not only globally recognised for leadership in terms of emissions targets, it also incubated the domestic renewable industry and resulted in declining infrastructure prices making solar and wind economical
But we need to do more and the urgency is getting greater, with extremes being reset consistently each year.
Our next course of action must involve everyone. We must change. Whilst Government has and must take haste to build renewable energy infrastructure and phase out coal - we need to now change our behaviours as quickly as we can to complete the plan.
Cars and Transport are a main focus. We need to change the culture we have around personal cars, which cars we want, how we use them and our 'norm' of individual ownership.
Your endeavours to raise awareness and create critical mass to trigger action is commendable and critical to this journey.
Best wishes
Kirilly
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kirilly DICKSON – Director Investigations & Complaints
BE – Environmental (Hons) UoW |Certificate of General Management HBS | ICAM Lead Investigator
Phone (+61) 2 6207 7127
Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment
C216, CIT BRUCE | GPO Box 158 Canberra ACT 2601 | www.envcomm.act.gov.au
-----Original Message-----
From: EnvComm <[ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment request email]>
Sent: Tuesday, 7 January 2020 4:18 PM
To: Ashlyn Horton <[FOI #5811 email]>
Cc: Dickson, Kirilly <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - The overall government's opinion on climate change, and solutions
UNCLASSIFIED
Hello Ashlyn
I do apologise for the delay in replying to you.
Kirilly Dickson, Director, Investigations, will respond to your email but is currently on leave. She will return on Monday 13 January.
Kind regards
Megan
-----Original Message-----
From: Ashlyn Horton <[FOI #5811 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, 1 January 2020 12:43 AM
To: EnvComm <[ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment request email]>
Subject: Internal review of Freedom of Information request - The overall government's opinion on climate change, and solutions
Dear ACT Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment,
You haven’t responded to me. Australia is burning, what are you doing?
Yours faithfully,
Ashlyn Horton
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #5811 email]
This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This email, and any attachments, may be confidential and also privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete all copies of this transmission along with any attachments immediately. You should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Posty left an annotation ()
This is a very commendable response from the department given the original request.