[Graeme]

Fitzsimons: Surely the time is now?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')eanette Fitzsimons, Green Party Co-Leader
Opening address of 'Solar 2005' - the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society conference at the University of Otago, Dunedin, delivered 8.45am, 28 November 2005.

Thank you for the invitation to open your conference, and welcome to those of you who have travelled from overseas to be with us. I hope you enjoy your time in New Zealand.

In the thirty years that I've been working to advance sustainable energy, it would seem there has never been a more propitious time to get the solar future seriously underway.

Oil prices have doubled in 18 months. Our oil dependence is showing up in the current account deficit and in the inflation rate. During the last few months I've been meeting with groups of 100 or so people around the country and showing The End of Suburbia. Citizens, unlike governments, are taking it seriously and are deep in discussion about what we should do.

[stu]

(moved from geopolitics)