Senator ALLISON (Leader of the Australian Democrats) (3:50 PM) —I move:

   That the Senate—

(a)   notes:

(i)   the launch on 1 August 2006 of the Clinton Climate Initiative, dedicated to fighting climate change in practical and measurable ways,

(ii)   that President Bill Clinton was joined by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to announce the first project of the initiative, and

(iii)   that urban areas are responsible for over 75 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the world;

(b)   notes that the initiative will:

(i)   create a purchasing consortium that will pool the purchasing power of the cities to lower the prices of energy saving products and accelerate the development and deployment of new energy saving and greenhouse gas reducing technologies and products,

(ii)   mobilise the best experts in the world to provide technical assistance to cities to develop and implement plans that will result in greater energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions, and

(iii)   create and deploy common measurement tools and Internet-based communications systems that will allow cities to establish a baseline on their greenhouse gas emissions, measure the effectiveness of the program in reducing these emissions and to share what works and what does not work with each other;

(c)   commends this scheme and urges the Federal Government to work with state governments to assist local government in Australia’s capital cities to join the initiative; and

(d)   urges the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Environment and Heritage, Sustainable cities.

Question put.