Page 2567 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 9 August 2016
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In the past year we have strengthened the governance of water in the territory. The establishment of the ACT and Region Catchment Management Coordination Group has greatly improved collaboration across the region and highlights the need for a holistic approach, as water has no boundary. The group comprises senior representatives from the commonwealth, New South Wales, ACT, local governments, Icon Water and the community. The establishment of this committee could not have come at a better time, with confirmation that the ACT has secured commonwealth funding as part of the basin priority project.
As part of this year’s budget we have committed $200,000 to the implementation of the climate change adaption strategy for the ACT. The territory is likely to be impacted by climate change in a number of ways. These include temperature increases, more prolonged heatwaves and drought, variable rainfall, more intense storms and flooding, and more intense bushfires. The community is already heavily engaged in this process. The draft adaption strategy attracted 170 submissions that will help inform the final strategy to be released by the government soon.
During 2015-16 over 391,000 activities took place in more than 22,000 households, including the installation of energy efficient lights, door seals, standby power controllers, instantaneous gas water heaters, and decommissioning of refrigerators and freezers. Each activity has an abatement value based on deemed greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the territory is achieving its reduction targets. But even more important is the value to the households taking place in these projects. The claimed abatement for all activities was 190 kilotons of CO2, of which 24 kilotons were claimed for priority households, thus meeting the government’s target in this area.
Our government has a significant focus on reducing the cost of living, particularly for low income households. A new program commenced on 1 October last year is to help low income households improve the energy efficiency of their homes and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The low income program, formerly the outreach program, is delivered by St Vincent de Paul. The program offers low income households an in-home energy assessment and education to improve their understanding of energy and water use, and it provides energy saving kits, a heated throw rug and extensive draught-proofing to the house. The program also replaces old inefficient refrigerators and installs curtains to a number of priority households.
Also part of the strategy to reduce our carbon footprint is providing assistance to businesses. To facilitate this goal the government has implemented the Actsmart business energy and water program, which provides advice and financial assistance for efficiency upgrades to small businesses to help reduce energy and water consumption.
Money for the Actsmart schools program will also continue. The program implements a whole-of-school action learning and behavioural change approach to sustainability that supports schools to introduce sustainable management practices into everyday school operations and to create a school culture committed to minimising its impact on the environment.
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