New Environment Minister Susan Close to declare ‘climate emergency’ for SA

The new Labor government will take a new step to “acknowledge the truth” of a climate emergency in SA.

A motion to declare a “climate emergency” in South Australia will be one of the first key acts of new Climate, Environment and Water Minister Susan Close.

Dr Close confirmed she would introduce the motion “soon” in response to both increased global warming projections and the need to prepare SA for significant climate and weather shifts.

It would make SA the first state to fully adopt such a motion. The ACT is the only state or territory to have done so. Critics will likely label it a tokenistic gesture with no tangible outcomes.

A similar move by Greens MLC Mark Parnell in 2019, which passed the upper house but did not get through the lower house was derided as an “empty gesture” by the Liberal Party.

Labor says it is a significant step in recognising the environmental reality and is accompanied by a suite of new works, particularly the party’s new hydrogen plan.

Deputy Premier and Climate, Environment and Water Minister Susan Close. Picture Emma Brasier

Dr Close said she would also spearhead a cross-department strategy to ensure the state was better prepared for a changing climate.

“One of the things I want to do is work across government to seriously prepare for the implications of having more and hotter days, more frequent storms, more frequent flooding events,” she said.

Dr Close pointed to this month’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which found greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 and be nearly halved this decade, to limit future heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Sixteen of SA’s 67 councils have already declared a climate emergency.

Recently elected Liberal leader and former environment minister David Speirs at the time derided it as an “empty gesture” that would “whip up hysteria.”

Dr Close said people wanted a “government that will acknowledge that truth”.

“It goes beyond symbolism when you are responding to people who are desperate people to have a government that says ‘Yes, we understand this is the truth’,” she said.

“(But) we can’t have a government that simply acknowledges the problem and doesn’t do anything about it. Recognising the warming that is already here is essential as is building the science into all relevant policy.”

Conservation SA chief executive Craig Wilkins said if any government was to declare such an emergency, it had to be accompanied by a range of projects and policy changes for it to have teeth.

“A government can declare a climate emergency and continue business as usual, or not declare a climate emergency and make substantial and important changes,” he said.

In a wide-ranging interview outlining the new government’s environmental priorities, Dr Close:

SAID the existing Murray-Darling Basin Plan did not reflect the latest science on the warming and drying that was happening in the basin and needed to be updated.

COMMITTED the government to having a stronger focus on nature restoration.

SAID the electric vehicle tax would be repealed “very soon”.

VIEWED biodiversity extinction as dangerous a threat as climate change.

STATED the promised hydrogen plant would be the “next key piece in the electricity generation puzzle” and be a “game changer” for SA.

WOULD promote more people using public transport.

Dr Close also said ultimately SA’s focus on renewables and climate change to date was something to be celebrated, but momentum had to be maintained. “South Australia has been an incredible success story of demonstrating that it is possible and we want to continue to be that,” she said.