Energy Efficiency Council Policy Platform Launch, 24 June 2010

The Energy Efficiency Council launched its national platform in Sydney on 24 June at 260 Elizabeth Street, Investa’s recently refurbished energy efficient building.

The document is a result of eighteen months of work by experts and provides a range of recommendations to drive Australia towards an energy efficient future.

Seven steps to make Australia energy efficient:

• Target: Cut energy use by 20% below business as usual by 2020
• Scheme: Introduce a National Efficiency Scheme (NES)
• The Grid: Targeted investment in efficiency by electricity distributors to reduce expenditure on the grid
• Strengthen Industry: NES support for projects with longer payback periods, Mandator efficiency targets for the top 200 energy users
• Unleash Co-generation: a feed-in tariff, changes to electricity markets
• Transform commercial buildings: NES support for whole-of-building retrofits, innovative finance for energy efficiency retrofits, mnadatory display of energy ratings
• Improve Government Operations: clear funding path for energy efficiency, mandatory requirements for agencies to improve their effiency.

The policy platform can be found here.  For more details, please go to the Energy Efficiency Council website: www.eec.org.au

State of Australian Cities 2010

Infrastructure Australia recently released the State of Australian Cities 2010 report. The media release and ministerial statement can be found at http://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/mcu.aspx

Note: Major cities are defined as all Australian Cities with populations of over 100,000 people.

Key findings of the report relevant for ASBEC include:

Transport

•         The level of car dependency in Australian cities has increased at a faster rate than population growth, creating traffic congestion problems as infrastructure and public transport have failed to keep pace with population growth. However, the major cities have significantly lower car-ownership rates than the rest of Australia, with public transport use concentrated in the larger cities.

•         Congestion, if not addressed will continue to grow as a serious negative not only for lifestyle but also for the negative economic impacts. Quoting the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, the report estimates that the avoidable cost of congestion for the Australian capitals was approximately $9.4 billion in 2005. Projections show that by 2020 this cost will rise to $20.4 billion, impacting adversely on Australian productivity and national, state and territory and local economies. In addition, congestion leads to productivity declines. In Australia’s eight capitals, the freight task—the movement of goods—is expected to grow by 70 per cent between 2003 and 2020 and, as trucks compete with other traffic in ever more congested roads, productivity will decline and costs to business increase.

•         Transport emissions are one of the strongest sources of emissions growth in Australia. That growth is expected to continue, with direct CO2-equivalent emissions projected to increase 22.6 per cent between 2007 and 2020—or around 1.58 per cent a year.

Sustainability and urban form

•         Despite the opportunities for efficiency and reduced environmental impacts offered by more compact forms of urban living, inner city households of capital cities, followed by the inner suburban areas, feature the highest consumption of water use, energy use and ecological footprints even when reduced car use is taken into account. A recent analysis incorporating indirect environment impacts—that is, the impacts arising through the production and distribution of goods and services that households consume in addition to direct household use of water, energy and land—has associated higher environmental impacts with higher incomes and smaller household sizes (Dey et al. 2007).

•         Water restrictions in major cities across the nation saw total consumption by households fall by 7 per cent between 2000–01 and 2004–05 despite population growth over the period.

•         Residential energy use accounted for approximately 7 per cent of total energy consumption in 2007–08, but grew at a high rate (2.2 per cent) relative to other sectors over the period. Standby power was the greatest contributor to average annual growth in household energy use over the period 1989–90 to 2006–07.

•         While national recycling rates have increased, total waste generation has also continued to increase—by around 31 per cent from 2002–03 to 2006–07, exceeding the rate of population growth of 5.6 per cent over the period.

•         A combination of high building mass, inefficient design for operational energy savings and low occupancy rates of apartment dwellings results in higher energy use and greenhouse emissions on a per capita basis than for suburban dwellings. This study found that the most carbon-efficient form of housing was townhouses and villas in inner suburban areas. The report also noted there are significant opportunities in the design and energy of apartments to reduce emissions, but the reduction of transport-related emissions in less compact outer suburban dwellings is more challenging and requires effective policy responses such as public transport investment, changes to urban form and energy efficient vehicles (Perkins et al. 2009).

Liveability

•         Analysis of the distribution of vulnerability to fuel, mortgage and inflation risks and expenses shows very high vulnerability is distributed across large tracts of the outer areas of Australia’s cities. Note: The VAMPIRE (vulnerability assessment for mortgage, petroleum and inflation risks and expenses) index developed by Griffith University and used the in the recent ASBEC Cities for the Future Report was used in the livability chapter of the report.