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FEBRUARY 2021
Welcome to the February 2021 edition of the Tasmanian Climate Change Office’s Newsletter. We’re always interested to hear about your climate change adaptation or emissions reduction projects, events and ideas, so please feel free to send us an email with the details for us to include in future editions or share on Facebook.
Last year was a very different and challenging one for many people, both in our home state and around the world. We send our support to all our subscribers and their loved ones.
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Climate change priorities for 2021
The Tasmanian Government is preparing to deliver key climate change priorities this year and we're keen to hear your thoughts.
Review of our climate change legislation
In late 2020, the latest four-yearly independent review of Tasmania’s climate change legislation, the Climate Change (State Action) Act 2008 (the Act) commenced. Consulting firm Jacobs has been engaged to conduct the review, and their consultation process will start this month.
Developing a new climate change action plan
Tasmania’s current climate change action plan, Climate Action 21, is due to conclude in June 2021. TCCO is developing a new action plan, which will build on the themes and actions from Climate Action 21.
Have your say
We’d like to hear from you about these important projects. You can provide your feedback through:
- Online workshops, which are being held during the week commencing 1 March 2021. All the workshops will be the same, so you only need to attend one. Register to attend a workshop.
- A Consultation Paper on the independent review of the Act, seeking public submissions (to be released in mid-March)
- An Opportunities Paper on the new action plan, seeking public submissions (to be released in mid-March)
Written submissions to the consultation papers will close in mid-April. We will publish the consultation papers on the TCCO website, and publicise the opportunities on our Facebook page and through this newsletter, so keep an eye on your inbox.
If you have questions about the independent review of the Act, you can send an email to ConsultationTasmania@Jacobs.com.
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$750,000 climate research boost for Tasmania
In August 2020, the Minister for Climate Change announced the successful recipients of the Tasmanian Government's Climate Research Grants Program.
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application. We were thrilled with the strong response from a wide range of applicants, which demonstrates Tasmania’s world class capability in climate science. Sixteen new projects will receive grants to deliver Tasmania’s priority climate research. Key topics include:
- analysis of biosecurity and invasive pests
- understanding the risks of the changing climate on key sectors
- examining the health and wellbeing impacts of climate change
The grants program was heavily oversubscribed, with a large number of high quality applications requesting a total in excess of the available funding. With the inclusion of contributions by recipients, the grants program will support a total spend of over $1.4 million on climate research in Tasmania.
These projects will support Tasmanian businesses, industry and the community to manage the risks and opportunities of a changing climate.
Specific research projects that will be funded include:
- Marine heatwave risks on aquaculture by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
- Carbon reduction strategies by DairyTas
- Fire regime modelling for planned burning by the University of Tasmania
A full list of recipients and their projects is available on the TCCO website.
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New online business resources available
New online resources are now available to support Tasmanian businesses to improve their resource efficiency, and include:
- videos
- case studies
- fact sheets
- links to templates
Resource efficiency is about doing more with less; creating more value with less impact. For businesses, focusing on resource efficiency means limiting their use of materials and reducing waste. It can also help businesses save money.
The resources can help businesses understand their resource use and waste streams, and design and implement resource efficiency solutions. The online resources were developed through the Tasmanian Government’s Business Resource Efficiency Program (BREP).
Business Resource Efficiency Program
BREP was a 12-month program to divert waste from landfill and improve resource efficiency across business supply chains. Eleven Tasmanian businesses participated in BREP in 2018 and 2019. The program was delivered by Business Action Learning Tasmania (BALT) across North and North-West Tasmania.
Participating businesses took part in a range of actions, including:
- a comprehensive waste audit;
- a series of workshops; and
- an action learning phase where participants worked collaboratively to design, problem solve and implement resource efficiency projects for their business.
Improvements implemented during the project included:
- a trial of drones at a vineyard to deter birds and replace plastic netting;
- installation of onsite composting equipment to divert food waste from landfill;
- recycling programs implemented across facilities; and
- waste streams transformed into high value products.
BREP is action 4.3 of Climate Action 21: Tasmania’s Climate Change Action Plan 2017-2021 and the resources are now available on the TCCO website.
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Upcoming Events
ABARES Outlook 2021 Conference (Virtual)
Growing Australian agriculture in an uncertain world
This year's ABARES Outlook 2021 conference will be an online event, allowing participants to attend the sessions that most interest them.
ABARES is the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, the research arm of the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
Date: 2 March - 5 March 2021
Venue: Online webinar
Information and registration: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
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