Page 1553 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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in ACT greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and the importance of a 100 per cent renewable energy target to reach that aim.
It is known that the territory’s renewable energy target is moving from 90 per cent in 2020 to 100 per cent by 2020. We are also increasing the territory’s level of ambition in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
In 2010 the Assembly passed the Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act. The act established targets for reducing greenhouse gases in the territory, including a 40 per cent reduction on the 1990 levels by 2020. In October of 2012 the government released the ACT’s climate change strategy and action plan 2, or AP2 for short. The AP2 established a pathway to meet this target by focusing on investments in renewable energy and by improving energy efficiencies across households and businesses.
The greenhouse gas inventory for Canberra in the 2012-13 financial year when AP2 was released estimated emissions from the territory were equivalent to just under 3,200 kilotons of carbon dioxide. Unlike conventional greenhouse gas accounting, the ACT greenhouse gas inventory included emissions from the generation of electricity that occurred outside the ACT.
These would normally be attributed to the jurisdiction where the emissions actually occur, such as scope 1 emissions. However, the ACT government has chosen to take responsibility for emissions associated with the territory’s consumption of energy where the generation of this electricity occurred outside the territory borders. These emissions are included in the ACT as scope 2 emissions.
Emissions are also accounted for in respect of the gas and transport fuel sectors, industrial processes, agriculture, land use, land use change and forestry, and the waste sector. The most recent greenhouse gas inventory for 2014-15 released in October last year showed that electricity sectors account for nearly 60 per cent of the territory’s total emissions annually.
Recognising that this is a high emitting and, therefore, high priority sector, in accordance with the interim emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below that of the 1990 levels by the year 2020, AP2 committed the government to a target of 90 per cent of the territory’s consumption to be from renewable sources by 2020.
The successful large-scale renewable energy initiatives conducted by the ACT government have to date been a 40 megabyte large-scale solar farm auction in 2012-13 and two 200 megawatt large-scale wind auctions between 2014 and 2016. The 2012-13 solar auction resulted in a feed-in tariff entitlement being awarded for a 20 megawatt solar farm located in Royalla. This facility commenced generating renewable energy in 2014 and contributed 34,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy for the 2014-15 year.
Feed-in tariff entitlements were also awarded for a 13 megawatt solar farm located at Mugga Lane and for a seven megawatt solar farm that will be built at Williamsdale.
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