Climate-conscious leadership will be at the forefront of voters' minds when they head to the ballot box in October, according to ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury.
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Mr Rattenbury said a downturn in the economy was not enough to detract from climate policy for Canberra voters.
"There is no doubt that the community wants this to be an environment election, Mr Rattenbury said.
"Even with the pandemic going on people know these are really important issues going on in the background.
"Climate change has not gone away because we're all having to focus on COVID."
Speaking alongside candidate for Ginninderra Jo Clay, the Greens' leader announced plans for a $33 million investment into Canberra's waterways.
If elected, Mr Rattenbury would establish an office to manage waterways in the ACT at a cost of $200,000 annually over the next four years.
The department would roll out infrastructure programs to improve current waterways work in the ACT by establishing new wetlands and investing in restoration projects across the city's water catchments.
Mr Rattenbury said it was not a question of whether the ACT could afford to make green investment a priority given the recession, it was that the country couldn't afford not to.
"There are real opportunities to create a lot of job-rich projects," Mr Rattenbury said.
"Whether it's this wetlands work, whether it's the installation of renewables or the insulation of homes.
"All of these things are jobs rich, they deliver for the environment and there's a real social dividend for them as well in terms of insulating homes and cutting people's energy bills."
Mr Rattenbury said the Greens saw the need for change, unlike other parties who tended to be stuck in the status quo when it came to environmental policy.
"It's clear that we need to be building a better normal. What we were doing before was not working, it was not sustainable.
"We have a climate crisis, we have an equality crisis and we have a housing crisis. These are all things we can address with a Greens' stimulus package."
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A spokeswoman for the Canberra Liberals said the Greens' track record spoke for itself.
"After eight years of a Labor-Green government in Canberra, tree canopy has been reduced, green spaces have been filled in with big apartment blocks and there is record homelessness," the spokeswoman said.
Referring to an election promise that every Canberran would have a park or oval within a 10-minute walk of their home, the spokesperson said only the Liberals will cut cost of living pressures for struggling families, plant a million trees in 10 years and deliver a Green Space Guarantee.
As part of its bid, the Greens' promise to increase funding for the waterways project to remove weed species, re-establish vegetation to improve habitat and protect lakes from pollutants.
Mr Rattenbury said Canberra was losing out every time sporting groups were turned away from waterways due to algae and pollution.