Page 2663 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Recently the commonwealth Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency commissioned consultants pitt&sherry to analyse a range of energy efficiency measures for new residential and commercial buildings in Australia by 2015 and 2020. Their results do not assume any government subsidies, although they do assume, of course, a carbon price of $23 a tonne because this was legislated by the federal government and will be in place very soon. The very good news is that they found there are very significant cost-effective opportunities for energy savings in new commercial buildings from as early as 2015 relative to the BCA 2010 list. They ranged from 50 per cent to 80 per cent savings. The savings were so high in commercial buildings because the energy efficiency requirements of the BCA for commercial buildings are not that high.
There were also options for more energy efficiency and passive solar design for residential buildings. Using these and on-site PV generation was cost effective in most parts of Australia from 2015 and all, including Canberra, from 2020. Because our electricity price is lower than in many other parts of Australia, in fact it was somewhat marginal for the ACT in 2015 but it was still worthwhile. So for residential buildings, going carbon neutral is, or soon will be, cost effective.
Looking on a bigger scale, members may be aware that in the Barangaroo project in Sydney, which is one of the biggest developments planned for Australia, it is planned to have office space for 23,000 people, as well as 800 apartments. The Barangaroo Delivery Authority’s goal is to make the precinct the first of its size in the world to be “climate positive”. What it means by that is that the site will generate more renewable energy than it uses. It will export energy, it will recycle water and it will export more water than it uses, it thinks. It will have a recycled water service and a waste recycling service. It will only use recycled water for flushing its toilets, irrigation and fire sprinklers. It will discourage the use of cars that use fossil fuels. It will have electric car power stations in car parks, as well as walking and cycling infrastructure and good links to public transport.
Turning to this bill, it is designed to ensure that planning decisions and planning approval processes are consistent with the legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets in the Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act 2010. To achieve this, the bill amends the objects of the act, inserts new requirements for a statement of strategic directions and a range of other development plans, as well as inserting a number of new requirements within the existing Planning and Land Authority functions.
The bill creates new obligations on the Planning and Land Authority and ensures that the planning decisions are made recognising both the impacts of climate change and our obligation to respond to and achieve the legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets in the Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act 2010.
The bill requires larger scale development plans—that is, structure plans, concept plans and estate development plans—to be compatible with the greenhouse gas reduction targets. These plans cover the layout of suburbs, which affects transport planning and building orientation. The bill also requires climate change impact assessments to be undertaken for larger scale impact track development applications.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video