Page 2799 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 August 2015
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happening for households and small businesses. It has helped many low income households to replace inefficient appliances. It has supported the installation of window fittings to improve comfort and increased general awareness of factors that affect electricity consumption.
The Actsmart program has also been highly successful in diverting large volumes of waste to landfill, particularly for events and businesses operating in the ACT. The education and awareness program has achieved excellent outcomes in our schools, with all ACT schools now accredited under the program, the only Australian jurisdiction to have achieved this.We are seeking to enhance Canberra’s reputation as the bush capital. To achieve this, we are partnering with the 202020 vision to increase the extent of green space in the ACT by 20 per cent, with particular attention placed on new suburbs. Increasing the number of trees and green cover in the ACT will also assist us in meeting the challenges of a changing climate and improving the amenity of the places where we live and work.
With the recent discussion around the benefits of wind generation as an alternative to fossil fuel energy generation, I would like to again reaffirm the ACT’s commitment to this form of renewable energy. This year’s budget allows the government to continue to undertake a second wind auction process. The first auction was exceptionally well supported and the submissions received were of a high quality. The process created certainty for an industry that had been badly hit by proposed changes and uncertainty at a federal political level. We look forward to the outcomes of the next auction, including the further economic benefits that will come from investment in our city. This auction will also bring us a step closer to our goal of 90 per cent renewable electricity by the year 2020.
The first round of the wind auction delivered to the ACT funding to provide $1.2 million to establish the renewable energy innovation fund. This fund, combined with our recently released strategy to bring together industry and research sectors to accelerate the development of the renewable energy industry in Canberra, is helping to cement the ACT as a centre of excellence for renewable energy nationally.
Focusing on solar, wind and energy storage, the renewable energy industry development strategy brings together a range of existing government initiatives and will help to facilitate the next generation of renewable energy technologies, including the creation of a renewable energy precinct and test berth facilities. There is no doubt that there are significant economic benefits to be had from being an early adopter economy, and this government wants the ACT to benefit from the jobs and investment that can come from this.
In this budget we have a strong focus on delivering projects that will build a sense of community awareness of and improvement to our local environment. The budget contains grant funding for both the ACT environment grants program and the community gardens program, totalling over $200,000. This includes $185,000 in environment grants. The program has a long history of supporting community groups to deliver terrific projects in the nature conservation area. Successful environment
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