The ACT Greens have accused the Gallagher government of ''not taking the big decisions'' on climate change, and questioned whether it can meet its 40 per cent greenhouse emissions reduction target.
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Launching a report card yesterday rating the government's progress on 43 specific actions outlined in its Weathering the Change climate action plan, ACT Greens environment spokesman Shane Rattenbury described the government's performance as ''underwhelming'' and inadequate.
''We have given the government an overall score of 48 per cent - a below pass mark with much room for improvement,'' Mr Rattenbury said.
Many actions were so vague that progress couldn't be measured and ''large sections were simply shopping lists of existing actions and several actions were double counted.''
But ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell said the Greens had chosen ''to make a political statement about a document that has already been reviewed, acted upon and built on''.
Mr Corbell said the government was now focusing on a second action plan to meet the ACT's greenhouse target of a 40 per cent cut in emissions by 2020.
''I encourage the ACT Greens to start engaging constructively in the discussion about the current policies instead of being stuck in the past,'' he said.
The report card follows the release this week of the latest State of the Environment report by ACT Commissioner for the Environment and Sustainability, Bob Neil. The commissioner's report found Canberra's greenhouse emissions has risen by 8 per cent.
Mr Rattenbury said the Greens' report card found the government's energy policy lacked specific targets and was delivered three years later than promised. Plans for ACT government buildings to achieve carbon neutrality were behind schedule and only one agency had produced a dedicated plan. Mr Rattenbury said the ACT still had the ''lowest rate of public transport use nationally'' despite the introduction of new bus services.
''The government is still largely failing to give priority to the kinds of initiatives needed to create a first-class system of public transport in Canberra,'' he said.
The report also found car travel continued to be ''prioritised'' in urban planning, despite road traffic accounting for almost 25 per cent of Canberra's carbon emissions.