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| Hunter Valley's Bayswater coal-fired power plant is earmarked to close by 2035. Photo: Rob Homer |
The aspirational target comes as new analysis of Australia's emissions point to national pollution far overshooting the 2030 goals committed to by the Turnbull government at last year's climate summit in France. The Paris agreement comes into force globally on Friday.
By releasing a goal for NSW to be carbon neutral by mid-century, the state is falling into line with states such as South Australia but also federal Labor's target.
A draft NSW strategic plan will be open to public feedback ahead of formalising policies by mid-2017. Potential spending includes $200 million from the Climate Change Fund to accelerate the take-up of emerging energy technologies such as renewables and batteries.
A similar sum is earmarked to boost energy efficiency so homes and businesses become less wasteful, and $100 million will be spent on minimising impacts of climate change that are unavoidable given past pollution.
There are no interim targets, such as 2030, at this point. Nor are there guarantees that policies promoting increased emissions, such as new coal mines or increased land clearing, will be blocked.
Still, Fairfax Media understands the new framework is aimed at elevating the issue of climate change and carbon emissions within cabinet, providing a prism through which other policies will be assessed.
One industry expert, who declined to be named, described the government's move as "amazing", coming from a Coalition-led state.
"It will be hard for any government to go back on," the person said. "It also forces the federal government to look at its policies [for 2050]."
One aim is to signal to investors that NSW wants a lion's share of the billions of dollars needed to meet the federal Renewable Energy Target by 2020.
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| NSW's Environment Minister Mark Speakman. Photo: John Veage |
NSW lags most states in renewables. It sources about 9 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy, barely half that of Victoria and a quarter of SA despite having good resources of wind and sunshine.
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| Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg is expected to attend the Marrakesh climate conference later this month. Photo: Philip Gostelow |
Alan Pears, an energy efficiency expert from RMIT University, said the NSW reports indicate huge returns on investments in energy saving.
"Program commitments are a few tens of millions of dollars but savings are in billions," he said. "So why not go a lot harder?"
Proposed actions include boosting the use of electric vehicles by changing stamp duty to encourage their adoption, and buying more such cars for government use.
Steps to limit the impact from climate change could include lifting the height of the Warragamba dam wall and increasing the canopy coverage of suburbs and towns to reduce the heat island effect, the draft policy said.
John Connor, head of The Climate Institute, welcome the Baird government's move.
"The adoption of a 2050 net zero emission objective is an important and historic development, shifting policy and accountability from the ambiguity of 'low' carbon objectives," he said. "Now to action."
"With NSW now joining Victoria, South Australia and the ACT, over half of national emissions are now covered by governments targeting net zero emissions by 2050."
Mr Connor was a member of the NSW Climate Council that advised the government on its new policy framework.
Tracking higher
While NSW is signalling a change of tack, more climate action will be needed at a national level, an international group says.
Australia's emissions are rising, and on current policies will be 52 per cent higher than 1990 levels, according to the Climate Action Tracker.
To meet the federal government's pledge at the Paris climate summit last year of cutting pollution levels between 26-28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030, emissions must fall 1.9 per cent annually on average. (See chart below.)
Instead, they are rising about 1.2 per cent a year, "dramatically illustrating the dichotomy between climate rhetoric and climate action", the group said.
The group blamed a rise in emissions from the electricity sector in the wake of the Abbott government's scrapping of the carbon price in mid-2014 for part of the increase.
It also said the federal government is continuing to "create political uncertainty on the future of renewable energy", including after South Australia – the state most reliant on renewable energy – suffered a blackout during a major storm in September.
A spokesman for federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said climate change was a key government priority.
"The Australian government is meeting its emission reduction targets, improving the environment and playing its part in the international effort to respond to the challenge of climate change," he said.
"We successfully met our first Kyoto target by 128 million tonnes and we are on track to beat our 2020 target by 78 million tonnes."
Larissa Waters, Greens environment spokeswoman, said Tony Abbott-era climate policies are allowing pollution to rise.
"Unless the Abbott-Turnbull pollution target and climate policies are dramatically improved during next year's climate policy review, this government [will] be a global laggard," Senator Waters said.
"We need an orderly shut-down of dirty coal power stations, no new coal mines, and a massive roll-out of job-creating clean energy."
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