Page 4987 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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Proposed new clause 9A.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.27): I move amendment No 4 circulated in my name which inserts a new clause 9A [see schedule 2 at page 5086].
This provision seeks to insert that the minister must determine an energy efficiency target. As I flagged, it is a new provision. As has been discussed at some length both in this debate and on previous occasions, energy efficiency will be the main plank of the government’s response to climate change.
Again, as has been discussed here before, it is clearly the most cost-effective measure to tackle climate change, but also one that delivers a range of benefits beyond the obvious reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in terms of the social health and wellbeing benefits delivered by many energy efficiency measures as well as, in a commercial sense, the economic savings and improvement of the bottom line for many businesses and commercial operations.
The Greens think it is appropriate that an energy efficiency target is articulated by the government. This can be done through other mechanisms and the Greens understand that the government is looking at specific legislation that will set energy efficiency standards for electricity retailers.
But this bill today is about defining the major policy parameters for climate change action. Much as the renewable energy target would be defined here, we think that there is merit in including an energy efficiency target in the legislation. I think the nature of this bill is to set a policy direction. We believe in that context that spelling out (a) that we want an energy efficiency target and (b) that the minister should determine one adds to that sense of roundness in the bill. It does not lead to the potential interpretation of an unbalanced approach in tackling the very challenging issue of reducing our emissions. I commend the amendment to the Assembly.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.30): The government will not be supporting this amendment. The purpose of the additional prescriptive target for energy efficiency is not clear. The proposed energy efficiency target is a crude target on the use of energy from electricity.
In fact, it is not a measure of energy efficiency—that is, the amount of energy required to provide products and services. Greenhouse gas emissions as electricity can be generated from renewables as well as from fossil fuels. This target fails to take account of that. Per person targets on electricity use in the government’s view are counterproductive. They are counterproductive because they ignore where the energy comes from and the role of renewable energy in electricity generation. It also ignores fuel switching to electricity, because this can have a positive impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for example, through renewable energy in the use of electric vehicles. It also ignores the flexibility needed in the government’s policy responses in reducing emissions from other sectors—for example, from transport and waste.
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