They certainly are. If you listen to some of the arguments in the current debate for the introduction of an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), it is not easy to be optimistic. The reduction targets the Government is aspiring to are ridiculously low. Kevin Rudd has so far utterly failed in delivering on his election promise of tackling climate change head on. Five per cent by 2020 and 60pc by 2050 – it’s a joke. Also the Renewable Energy Target (or RET) of 20pc is vastly insufficient to reduce our appalling emissions - to have a real impact.

Don’t believe the propaganda. Australia is neither clean nor green. We are per capita the biggest power related emissions producer in the world. And each year we send millions of tons of greenhouse gases overseas, as we are the biggest coal exporter on the globe. When the consequences of climate change become more apparent, which is just a question of time, the world will be looking for scapegoats. Australia will be one. Our coal export industry makes us indirectly a global super polluter.

Though as small as they are, the reduction targets are a start - they are better than nothing. It is therefore regrettable that politicians like Barnaby Joyce, Steve Fielding, Wilson Tuckey and – sadly – some much closer to home, are opposing or discrediting the targets and measures on grounds that are simply inexcusable. Anyone who takes the time to familiarize himself with the hard, cold facts and figures will quickly agree that the science on human induced climate change is overwhelming and the result of decades of most detailed, peer-reviewed research by the worlds top experts. So called skeptics must therefore be hostages to their own ignorance and ideology. That makes them irresponsible and dangerous. With support from the PR-offices of the resources industry and of a willing, complacent, complicit and often unprofessional media they are able to disperse a breathtaking amount of misleading, selective and even completely wrong information .

And now to the good news.

The biggest problem the world has ever been confronted with is also the biggest opportunity. Particularly for small, regional communities such as ours. While Australian politicians are still bickering, other countries have long ago jumped on the unprecedented possibilities the fight for a sustainable future is offering. They are not simply wanting to save the world. They want to make a Dollar. Experts believe we are experiencing the dawn of a new industrial revolution. “Greentech”, they call it. We are talking much more that just solar- and wind power, two of the most advanced options for producing renewable energy. As a matter of fact, Australia has probably already missed the boat, when it comes to the development of sun technology. The coal addicted climate skeptic John Howard allowed our world class solar technology to be sold to China and Germany – and with it he exported tens of thousands of jobs. Australian jobs are now overseas. And we are importing our technology back in the form of solar panels.

Greentech is more than power generation. In 2025 50pc of the world’s population will suffer from a lack of quality drinking water. The market for sustainable water purification technologies is already estimated to be worth about $500 billion.

Or energy efficiency research and technology. How do we design our industry better, so it uses energy more efficiently? It is the biggest market in the Greentech sector, worth at least $700b globally.

Or Material efficiency. Around the world, hundreds of millions of houses have to be designed or re-designed in order to make them carbon neutral. Millions in Australia. In many European countries it is not possible to build a new house if it is not up to the highest standard of material efficiency and thermal insulation. Make no mistake: such strict rules will eventually come to Australia. But they are an opportunitiy. We are talking about billions of Dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs in developing technologies, manufacturing them, installing them. That’s plumbers, builders, carpenters, sparkies and brickies.

Jobs, green jobs. Germany has just survived the biggest recession in decades thanks to the Greentech sector. While other sectors of the economy have experienced mass sackings and near collapses, the Greentech sector has boomed. Workers that had lost their jobs in the mines and car industry were taken up by the Greentech sector. That is how the blue collar worker can become a green collar worker. The German sustainability industry today employs 1.2m people. The car industry – and don’t forget: Germany is the home of Mercedes, Volkswagen and Audi – employs a mere 760,000. By 2020 the Greentech sector in Germany will employ at least 2.2m people and will generate a turnover of $520b from $250b.

Goulburn can have a slice of the pie sustainable technologies can offer. But it is up to each one of us to us to take action, and we have to act fast. Other regions of Australia can see the opportunities, too. That is why TGG was formed. We are working on a range of projects with the goal of not only attracting Greentech industries to our region, but making our town one or the green hubs of Australia. Again, Germany is a good example. Areas in East Germany that had been devastated economically by the fall of the iron curtain, got a new lease of life thanks to Greentech. Entrepreneurs were encouraged to set up new factories in these regions, using and retraining the local workforce. It was and still is an undisputed success. Today the people there are again prosperous, they have jobs, quality, long term jobs.

In the absence of quality government incentives – although there are some emerging - we, the people of Goulburn, have to develop our own possibilities. That is what TGG is doing. We do it in co-operation with the ANU. A group of top students are currently researching the viability of bringing Greentech to Goulburn.

But we also work with private industry in looking for opportunities that offer a win-win-situation for all of us. Suffering from high electricity prices? Well, better get used to it. Or generate your own power – again, like the Germans do, and sell your excess electricity to the grid. TGG is currently looking at such options for our town.

The choice is ours. The Goulburn region can become an outer suburb of Sydney, a cheap place to live, a social refuge for those who cannot afford even Campbelltown or Claymore. We can remain a honey pot for scrupulous developers, crooks and property pimps, promising us fantastic new developments and hundreds of jobs that will never materialize. And if they do, these jobs are as disposable as the wrapping paper of a McDonalds cheeseburger, gone when the wind turns.

Or we can take action and make the best of the enormous potential we have here in and around Goulburn. We can become a highly sought after place. But first we have to look over the border, learn from others, and tackle this new and exciting future head on. A future with long term, sustainable jobs, a future that offers our children real opportunities – here, not in Sydney or Canberra.

This of course means vision and action from our leaders on a council level. In the end however it is you who will have to make the decision. As much as you have the power to say no to a plastic bag at Woolies, you have the power to change the direction Goulburn is taking.