Page 4900 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 25 October 2011
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as practical, ensure consistency with the best national and international practices; and request an independent entity to prepare an annual report on greenhouse gas emissions and the greenhouse gas reduction targets.
In line with the act, and following advice from an independent entity, I determined a method for measuring greenhouse gas emissions on 23 September this year, which was made effective on 30 September this year, and I requested an independent entity to prepare an annual report on ACT greenhouse gas emissions and reduction targets. The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission provided the ACT greenhouse gas inventory 2008-09 to the government on 30 September this year. Subsection 12(4) of the act requires that I present the inventory report to the Assembly within 21 days of its receipt.
The inventory provided in this report is a more comprehensive account of greenhouse gas emissions in the ACT than that given in state and territory greenhouse gas inventories prepared by the commonwealth Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. The commonwealth’s inventory for the ACT calculates emissions using a production approach, which focuses on the specific facility or production process where emissions occur. Using this approach, the ACT would not be taking responsibility for its share of emissions associated with electricity that we consume but that is generated outside our borders.
The ACT greenhouse gas inventory gives a clear picture of the ACT’s greenhouse emissions profile and shows that they are mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels in the stationary energy sector. The report shows that the largest contributor to emissions came from electricity, comprising 63 per cent of the total. This was almost three times the next largest component—transport, at 22 per cent—with natural gas representing eight per cent.
Key findings in the ACT greenhouse gas inventory for 2008-09 include the following. In 2008-09, the ACT’s net greenhouse gas emissions totalled 4,183 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent when emission reductions from land use, land use change and forestry are included and 4,206 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent when such reductions are excluded. There was a 1.3 per cent increase in emissions from 2007-08 to 2008-09, including emission reductions from land use, land use change and forestry. And per capita emissions peaked in 2006 at 12.3 tonnes and in 2009 were 11.9 tonnes.
The emissions profile of the ACT differs from that of other Australian jurisdictions in two important ways. Firstly, the ACT is dominated by emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in the energy sector, including from electricity consumption, transport fuels and natural gas. And the ACT has a lack of significant manufacturing and agriculture sectors; therefore emissions from non-energy source categories are very low.
To achieve the ACT 2020 target, which is equivalent to total net emissions of 1,915 kilotonnes of C02 equivalent, the ACT needs to reduce emissions over the remaining 11 years by an average amount of 206 kilotonnes each year, or at an annual rate of 6.9 per cent per annum. Prior to the next ACT greenhouse gas inventory being
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