THE PREMIER of South Australia came to visit Ecotricity boss Dale Vince today as he seeks to gain support for ambitious plans to make South Australia 'carbon neutral' by 2050.
Jay Weatherill came to meet the green energy company's boss at Forest Green Rovers to discuss the future of renewable technology and climate change.
"Dale has shown international leadership on tackling climate change and we wanted to learn how he has excited and ignited community action," he told the SNJ.
"Engaging with the community is necessary if there is going to be change and we can learn from what Dale has done here where he has got a football club to switch to vegan pies.
"It's important to have an international framework but it's at a local level where real action can be taken.
"We will see more extreme weather which we are seeing already unless action is taken.
"In South Australia we have just had an awful bush fire where two people died, many others were seriously injured and there were thousands of stock losses.
"We can expect to see more of these events unless action is taken on climate change."
The Premier has announced the bold ambitious plans to make Adelaide the first carbon neutral city ahead of his visit to the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.
His government is hoping to attract £10billion of investment in low carbon energy by 2025.
Mr Weatherill said the key to tackling climate change is to raise awareness in communities about the impact of the potential changes and work with industries through partnerships.
He added: "We are declaring Adelaide and South Australia as the global laboratory for creating the world's first truly low carbon economy.
"It shows the world what a small, but committed jurisdiction of just 1.7 million people can do.
"It points the way to more to come and it's real, not wishful thinking.”
Dale Vince told the SNJ: "They have set a very ambitious target but it is exactly the type of target we need to set as a world.
"Since the first international talks were held on climate change 21 years ago we have not come far enough.
"I think what they are doing in South Australia is fantastic and I am interested to help in any way I can."
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