Canberra, with its "zero emissions" target, yearns to be Australia's greenest address.

Good.  Let's use them as a full-blown test of "zero emissions" before we all jump over that cliff.

Canberra (the center of Australia Capital Territory, the equivalent of the District of Columbia) passes thousands of laws for us.  If the lawmakers' zero emissions dream is fair dinkum, they need to pass just three laws for themselves.

First, ban all gas, diesel and gas-powered trucks, cars, boats, generators, and airplanes from Canberra.  That should remove emissions from their atmosphere and food from their supermarkets and leave their roads free for pedestrians and bicycles.  Idle airport runways would be ideal sites for solar panels and wind turbines.

Second, prohibit the importation of electricity generated by coal or gas.  The folks in Canberra can demonstrate how to survive on wind, solar, hydro, batteries, and firewood.  They should work at home by candlelight on cloudy, windless days.

Third, introduce a CCT (Canberra carbon tax), whereby all carbon dioxide emitted elsewhere in the production and transport of imported cement, steel, aluminum, bitumen, timber, vehicles, bicycles, solar panels, wind turbines, firewood, and food is charged to ACT end users.

If people flock into emissions-free Canberra, we will know that this is the way for Australia.  But if there is a mass exodus, it will signal that the policy is a failure.

Let's test the convictions of Canberrans.