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In the job just six months, Andrew McNamara, Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation, is enthusiastic about wrestling what he calls the "crouching tiger of climate change".

"I live in great luxury, in a magnificent Queenslander high on Point Vernon," says the Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation. Andrew McNamara's definition of luxury, however, is unexpected: while his home has neither air conditioner, nor clothes dryer, nor swimming pool, its wide wooden verandas catch the prevailing breezes and solar panels heat its water.

He has plans to convert the whole house to solar power, becoming part of what he predicts will be an explosion of demand on the heels of the Queensland Government's solar bonus scheme. From 1 July this year, the government will pay households and businesses 44 cents for every kilowatt hour generated by solar power systems and fed into the grid.

"I think (the tariff) marks one of those turning points in solar power. It reduces front end electricity bills and the repayment time on the systems comes down from ten years to three. I think it will now be picked up by governments and houses across Australia."

His endorsement of solar power seems a big leap for someone who, before entering parliament seven years ago, sat on the board of Ergon Energy. Environmental interests and energy interests are usually thought to pull in different directions.

"That is traditional thinking," he says, "but it's completely wrong. Our wealth is built on the natural environment we inherit and the energy we extract from it. They're not just linked, they're the same thing."

Ergon proved a valuable training ground for the future Minister. In 1999 the Beattie government declared within five years Queensland would generate 13 per cent of its electricity from gas. The announcement caused consternation in the Ergon board, of which Mr McNamara was a member.

"I learned the power of targets," he says of the experience. "Governments setting targets for industry can drive enormous change. To take the gas industry from almost nothing to 13 per cent of Queensland's power within five years was remarkable.
"For me, being on the Ergon board when the 13 per cent gas target was announced, and in Cabinet when the solar feed-in tariff was announced, was a sweet double.

"The rooftops of Queensland represent an unbelievable resource for gathering power and I expect the day will come when every roof is a solar collector"

"I think the solar tariff will change our power mix in Queensland significantly. What really excites me is that it's a huge step towards recognising we need distributed power systems."

In an energy-constrained world, losing 20 to 25 per cent of power by sending it vast distances is too inefficient. Local solutions provide answers.
"The rooftops of Queensland represent an unbelievable resource for gathering power and I expect the day will come when every roof is a solar collector. It's shameful how far behind we are," he says. "Copenhagen, with a third of the number of our sunny days is producing 35 per cent of power from solar. It's just embarrassing."

Mr McNamara predicts the Federal Government's carbon trading system (announced in March and planned for 2010) will transform the energy sector, providing a massive boost to renewables. However, he also admits government action is too late.

"We needed to get our act together 30 years ago. We are pretty well locked into two degrees of global warming no matter what we do. So the battle is on two fronts: firstly to try and stop the two degrees we know are coming turning into four, and secondly to adapt to the two we know are coming."

Adaptation work, he says, includes giving Queensland's biodiversity the best chance of survival by ensuring clean waterways, north-south and east-west connectivity of nature corridors, and redoubled efforts on pests and weeds.
As part of staving off the spectre of a four-degree rise, Mr McNamara is currently reviewing last year's Climate Smart 2050 policy. While the strategy committed to a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2050, he says "it doesn't go far enough in addressing the scale of the problem. It focuses too much on stationary energy and not anywhere near enough on emissions from other sectors".

Some 40 per cent of Queensland's emissions are from stationary energy, and much of Climate Smart 2050 looked to "clean coal" power stations for answers. However, the technology does not yet exist and is predicted to take well over a decade to deliver any greenhouse gas savings.

In the meantime, Queensland's coal powered stations continue to pump between 40 and 50 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere every year, overwhelming the relatively small emissions savings made elsewhere, e.g. the 13 per cent gas policy.

It's just as well, then, that in early March Mr McNamara convinced the government to require assessments of greenhouse gas implications, mitigation options and alternatives in all cabinet submissions.
"It's an enormous reform and I believe we're the only government in Australia doing it. I think the British government's just introduced something similar, but not quite as extensive.

"I think it's a very significant change in mindset that should filter through everything we do. It's something I'm very proud of."

The reform precedes a review of the Integrated Planning Act by Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, which Mr McNamara predicts will require all councils to take into account the implications of climate change in development applications and approvals.

It remains to be seen if Mr McNamara's initiatives, designed to help steer the climate change juggernaut away from disaster, keep the support of a comparatively conservative cabinet.

Well versed in the evidence and predictions of climate change, he is confident that the public opinion tide has turned.
"There's a much broader acceptance and understanding across the community about the challenges. I'm still not sure people have quite got their heads around the scale of the impacts that are already locked in."

Peak bodies from the building industry have approached the government offering to roll out vast improvements in energy, water and carbon emissions if they are mandated. While encouraged by the approaches, Mr McNamara admits such improvements in the sector will hinge on regulation, "because you need to keep the playing field level".

Coastal development is about to feel the early effects of disrupted weather patterns, Mr McNamara forecasts, driven not by regulation but by risk.

"I believe the insurance industry is on the verge of reassessing risk in relation to coastal communities as a result of climate change. When the insurance industry changes its premiums for coastal development or withdraws the offer of insurance, the finance industry will withdraw the offer of finance, and we will see a fundamental shift."

Towards sustainable development?

"The word ‘sustainable' has been brutally misused down the years, as if putting it in front of something grants sustainability; like magic - sprinkle the sustainable word over it and it's good," he says.
"I'd like to reclaim the word, and I was glad the Premier made me the Minister for Sustainability because it implies interaction between human use of the planet and the environment."

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