Page 5435 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
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suppliers of furniture or other landscape materials as close to site as possible to reduce transport emissions.
In 2016-17 upgrades to Spence and Kambah shops were completed and included the planting of new trees to create a greater canopy in the public realm, reducing the heat island effect. New public housing is being built by the public housing renewal task force to Housing ACT’s standards, with modern designs that take advantage of natural sunlight and ventilation, and delivering minimum six-star energy ratings.
The ACT’s renewable electricity supply increased from 20.8 per cent in 2015-16 to 32.3 per cent in 2016-17. The Williamsdale and Mugga Lane solar farms began large feed-in tariff supported generation during 2016-17, as did the Ararat and Hornsdale stage 1 wind farms.
Mr Assistant Speaker, as you can see, there is a wide range of initiatives right across the ACT government, and, through our renewable energy purchases, right across the community.
As required by the act, and reflecting the community interest, I now turn to discuss the cost of living impact statement that I have tabled today. Two current climate change programs identified in action plan 2 had a cost of living impact in 2016-17. These were the energy efficiency improvement scheme and the large-scale feed-in tariff scheme. Together these schemes contributed approximately $62.40 to an average electricity bill in 2016-17, similar to the contribution in 2015-16 of $63.40. This is approximately two per cent of the total cost of energy, on average, to households during the year. This has no impact on gas bills as the cost of these schemes is passed on via electricity tariffs.
The total estimated energy bill savings to have been received by participating premises under the EEIS in 2016-17 is approximately $18.5 million. This equates to average savings for participating households of $264 in 2016-17, or an average saving across all ACT households of $118. It is important to note that savings for participating households will continue for a number of years, even after the EEIS is expected to conclude in 2020.
Finally, I include as part 2 of the annual report a statement of the emissions of government operations. This year the government undertook an independent calculation of emissions produced by ACT government operations. The ACT government’s greenhouse gas inventory now uses the same methodology as the territory’s greenhouse gas inventory, enabling a direct comparison of ACT government emissions and territory emissions.
In 2016-17 emissions from ACT government operations totalled 154.6 kilotonnes of greenhouse gas emissions—CO2 equivalent. This represents a decrease of seven per cent from the previous financial year, and an overall reduction of 11 per cent since 2012-13. Savings have been achieved by improving energy efficiency and increasing the proportion of renewable electricity used by the ACT government. These savings have offset increases in natural gas and transport emissions.
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