The Greens candidate for Macquarie, Tony Hickey, has committed to the rollout of solar and batteries for local schools and early childhood centres.
"Rolling out solar and batteries for local schools and early childhood centres is the perfect COVID-19 recovery economic stimulus project. It will mean new, clean local jobs in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury, it will slash school electricity costs and it will reduce greenhouse emissions," said Mr Hickey.
"I'm not surprised that the Labor and Liberal candidates haven't committed to this important project. These are the candidates who back their party's plans to approve 114 new coal and gas projects after the election. They don't have a real plan to take action on climate change, even though our community is begging for it."
Beyond Zero Emissions has found that putting solar panels and batteries on Australian schools and early childhood centres would save $114,000 in annual energy bills per large school, save $12,700 in small schools, create 6,870 jobs and save 1.4 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions per year.
"We are grateful to the Blue Mountains group of the Australian Parents for Climate Action for bringing this idea forward," said David Shoebridge, the NSW Greens candidate for the Senate.
The group's co-leader, Dr Jenna Condie, said: "This is just the type of practical climate solution that many local parents support. We want to see real action on climate change that is going to make the future possible for our families."
