Economic and greenhouse policies should work together in green nation building

Wednesday, 08 October 2008 20:55

"Directing infrastructure spending towards those projects that promote emissions reductions will not only promote growth in the short run but will also protect our economy from global warming over the medium to long term," said Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Total Environment Centre.

"We are calling upon the Commonwealth Government to direct Infrastructure Australia spending towards Green Nation Building projects such as:

- Intermodal freight facilities - to shift freight away from carbon intensive road based transport to low emissions coastal shipping and rail;

- High speed train links between Australia's major cities to reduce emissions intensive plane travel;

- Suburban rail links to offer people a low emissions transport option;

- Retirement of existing coal fired power stations and replacement with large scale, zero emissions, Solar Thermal, Geothermal, and Wave powered baseload power stations;

- Smart Grid: technologies to optimise the contribution of demand management and distributed generation technologies to Australian emissions reductions;

"The international demand for the skills that are required to plan and deliver these projects will only grow as the nations of the world take on binding emissions reductions." said Mr. Angel

"By giving Australians the opportunity to 'learn by doing' these projects will also provide much needed investment in skills and promote future export markets for Australian business." said Mr. Angel.