Mitigation … Robyn Parker. Photo: Ryan Osland
The NSW government is planning to rely heavily on the carbon tax to cut greenhouse gas emissions until 2020, despite campaigning to have it abolished.
The three-yearly NSW State of the Environment report outlines some progress in cutting emissions but concedes the state's programs mostly exist to support the federal government's climate change efforts.
''The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will be primarily addressed through the Commonwealth's Clean Energy Futures package, rather than through effort by individual states and territories,'' it says.
The Environment Minister, Robyn Parker, said NSW would contribute through complementary measures.
''Nationally, mitigation is most efficiently achieved through a consistent program at the federal level,'' she said. ''NSW will ensure our mitigation policies are consistent with and complementary to the federal policy settings.
''To deliver these targets and mitigate carbon pollution, the government has developed and consulted on a draft renewable energy action plan, which we are in the process of finalising, and we will also release an energy efficiency action plan later this year.''
The federal opposition's climate spokesman, Greg Hunt, said again on Wednesday that if a Coalition government were elected this year ''we will honour our commitment to scrap the carbon tax''.
NSW emissions in 2009-10 were equivalent to 157.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This equals 21.8 tonnes of CO2 per person, below the national average of 25.1 tonnes. The international average for developed countries like Australia is 11.3 tonnes.