CANBERRA
40%

Labor: The Government is committed to a 40 per cent reduction on 1990 greenhouse gas emission (GHG) levels by 2020 and a goal of zero net GHG for the ACT by the year 2060. This commitment is underpinned by the Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act 2010, which was passed by the Legislative Assembly in October 2010.

The Plan identifies the next stages of our intent, if re-elected, to maintain the ACT’s leadership in effective climate change responses. The AP2 consultations with the community presented 6 alternative Pathways to achieve the targets. The Labor Government considered the options and agreed ‘Pathway 2’ of the draft AP2 which was overwhelmingly supported through the community consultation. AP2 comprises 18 Actions to address the primary sources of emissions in the Territory and focuses on energy efficiency and increased clean energy for the ACT. As they are implemented these actions will see the Territory become a national leader in energy efficiency implementation and renewable energy investment. The actions will transform Canberra, and the Australian Capital Region, into a hub of clean energy innovation and investment through to the next Strategy review in 2015.

This Pathway also confirms ACT Labor’s commitment to ensure that least cost emissions reduction options are at the core of our climate change response. AP2 provides for a staged investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy in ways which provide flexibility to respond to reductions in technology costs as they emerge.

Pathway 2 advantages include:
• Energy efficiency greatly reduces consumer energy costs;
• While there is a small cost short-term premium associated with investment in renewable energy, these reduce over time and are predictable;
• Lower exposure to volatile carbon offset markets;
• Policies to support renewable energy investments can be designed to ensure emission reductions above and beyond national pollution caps – so meeting ACT targets;
• Renewable energy investments in the ACT and region offer regional development and employment opportunities; and
• It establishes the base for our long-term targets in 2050 and 2060

Liberal: In 1997, it was a local Liberal government that introduced Australia’s first greenhouse gas emissions targets for any jurisdiction in Australia. Those targets had the ACT stabilising its emissions at 1990 levels and reducing them by 20 per cent of 1990 levels by the end of this decade. That is the record of the Liberal governments in Canberra. It is a strong record of commitment and achievement in this area, and one we will be proud to continue.

The greenhouse gas emissions targets set by the Liberals were dropped by the Stanhope Labor Government.

And there is the undeniable fact that, since the Greens and ACT Labor joined forces 4 years ago, the ACT’s total emissions have actually gone up. And not by a small amount. The emissions have gone up 25% in the last four years. The State of the Environment Report makes for sobering reading for those who put their faith in this government four years ago.

Greens: The ACT Greens’ greenhouse gas reduction target for 2020 is 40% on 1990 levels. Our policies combined aim to deliver this target by 30 June 2020

Pirate party: Greenhouse gas reduction target for 2020 is 40%. Will reach 40% reduction by 2020

Labor: The ACT Labor Government is committed to providing a Light Rail network throughout the city. Feasibility analysis for the rapid transit mode along our most congested corridor – Gungahlin to City – is well advanced and the latest Project Update has just been released. ACT labor has committed $30 million to progress the planning work necessary to proceed to a private partnership for the development of the Gungahlin to City Capital Metro route.

The ongoing encouragement for and development of infrastructure to support active travel – walking or cycling – is a key policy of the ACT as articulated in detail in Transport for Canberra. The network of walking and cycling paths has been extensively upgraded over the past 10 years, such that Canberra now has one of the most extensive networks in Australia, comprising off-road shared paths, on-road cycle lanes and roads.

An ACT Labor Government will continue to expand and improve the cycle network. We will work with the Conservation Council and other stakeholders like Pedal Power. The Strategic Cycle Network Plan will identify additional measures required to ensure that cycle infrastructure is sufficient to enable the ACT Government to reach its ambitious target of trebling the number of people cycling by 2031. We are already expanding our bike and ride facilities with six new sites planned. We are continuing to install free bike racks on ACTION buses, free bike cages, lockers and rails at bus stops and bus stations on the Frequent Network.

One of the key actions of Transport for Canberra will see ACT Labor complete shared paths in the town centres and major employment areas. We will also develop a master plan for a commuter cycle network with high-quality cycling infrastructure that is safe and well signposted, offering direct routes to destinations and integrated with public transport (Action 18, Transport for Canberra).

Liberal: No response.

Greens: What: an initial commitment of $200 million to build light rail; $31 million in additional investment over the next 4 years to improve Canberra’s bus system, including more buses, better frequency and coverage, and a trial of demand-responsive buses for new suburbs, more school buses, new Park and Rides and hybrid and electric bus trials; $13.25 million for cycling and walking infrastructure and a commitment to ensure that all new development prioritises active transport (delivered with the Territory Plan review outlined in 2b).

Date of Delivery: 2015 to start building first light rail route; consistent implementation of remaining bus/light rail/cycling initiatives over 2012-2016 Assembly term.

Cost: Details including costs of all initiatives at the following links:

• Bus Initiatives
• Light Rail Initiative
• Wi-Fi Initiative
• Cycling and Walking

Abatement: drawing on data from Pitt and Sherry, we estimate that our initiatives will abate approximately 200kt of emissions in 2020, by reducing (a) dependence on private vehicles and (b) overall vehicle-related emissions. This is a 9% contribution to the 40% abatement required in 2020..

Pirate party: Commence a significant one-off investment and upgrade to the bus network to reduce car dependence and emissions and lay the groundwork for future light rail. This investment would involve:

• Restoring specialized high-frequency, high-speed, high capacity inter-town services operating between the main urban centers;
• Improving service levels on local routes connecting to inter-town services, with connecting timetables and a greater service frequency;
• Additional staff to supervise connections, maintenance and passenger safety.

Reallocate funds to add in-house expertise and engineering capacity to assist with traffic planning. Retain permanent expert capacity ‘in-house’ instead of outsourcing engineering tasks on an ad-hoc basis to ensure a continuity of vision and standards as well as a more holistic oversight of traffic considerations.

Labor: The Government has provided incentives for adaptive re-use of C and D grade office stock in Civic and town centres. Remission of Lease Variation Charge (LVC) will be available for developments which achieve improvement in environmental performance above the current standards and practice. The performance will be measured in whole of life carbon abatement above the standard, and the remission will be based on the prevailing carbon price under the national framework. The remission will also include an Embodied Carbon Premium (ECP) set at 20 per cent, to recognise the carbon savings from the re-use of an existing building.

Further incentives are provided through waivers of conveyance duty on a case by case basis. The waiver is limited to the first transaction to reduce the costs for the ‘financial vehicle’ used for the project, and will be provided upon application to ACT Revenue Office.

The Government considers the redevelopment of Northbourne Avenue Corridor as a a
priority project. LVC remissions will be also available to support high quality developments that achieve improved environmental performance above the current standards. To be eligible, the developers would be required to achieve carbon savings which exceed the current minimum practice by at least 30 per cent.

Liberal: No response.

Greens: What: The Greens are allocating funding for a review of the Territory Plan to ensure that all urban development (including residential and commercial built environment) delivers on the ACT’s 40% reduction targets. In addition there will be funding over 3 years for construction industry education. Whilst we cannot anticipate specific recommendations of the review, we expect it will call for adoption of a zero carbon construction standard for all new buildings. For more information, refer to ACT Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur’s tabled legislation: Planning and Development (Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets) Amendment Bill and especially the document titled consultation arrangements.

The ACT Greens Planning for a Sustainable Future initiative is at: http://act.greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/Planning.pdf.

Date of Delivery: The Review is to be finalised in 2014-15.

Cost: $1.36 million of which $1 million is for Territory Plan review and variation and $366,000 is for construction industry education. We have also allocated $200,000 for subsequent precinct-level planning to implement the broader Territory Plan changes at local levels.

Abatement: drawing on data from Pitt and Sherry, we anticipate that Greens policies will abate approximately 110kt of emissions in the commercial building sector in 2020. This represents a 5% contribution to the 40% target in 2020.

Pirate party: We will oblige ACTEW AGL to purchase power generation for solar panel systems over 30kW (currently this obligation only exists for small systems). The solar industry has requested this, citing the powerful incentive it would create for businesses to install solar PV systems (notably over some of the huge industrial roofing systems in places such as Fyshwick).

We will investigate options for extending the currently operating program which advises homeowners on maximizing energy efficiency and extend it to encompass businesses as well.

Labor: The ACT Labor Government has introduced the Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living Improvement) Act 2012 which will drive energy efficiency solutions into 70,000 ACT households and target 25% to be low income households. ACT Labor’s AP2 will deliver on the ground energy efficiency outcomes of about 25% of all emissions reductions by 2020.

It is current ACT Labor Government policy to have more than 50% of future residential growth by urban consolidation rather than Greenfield. This can be found in the ACT Planning Strategy http://www.actpla.act.gov.au/tools_resources/legislation_plans_registers/plans/planning_strategy. Urban intensification will focus on town and key group centres and along main transport corridors rather than throughout the suburbs. An ACT Labor government will consider applications for funding through normal budget processes.

Liberal: No response.

Greens: What: residential abatement will be addressed through the Territory Plan variation and construction industry training outlined above. It will also be supported by the introduction of a minimum 3 star energy efficiency standard for all rental properties and the accelerated phase out of energy inefficient hot water systems in both new and existing properties.

As an interim measure the ACT Greens would legislate for new residential buildings to be minimum 7 star EER (up from 6). Work by Pitt& Sherry shows energy efficiency is cost effective in the ACT.

Date of Delivery: all of these measures are to be delivered on by June 30 2020.

Cost: The Greens are providing $26.4 million over the next 4 years for public housing to meet the minimum energy efficiency standard. We will provide $10,000 for the industry training to assist with the hot water phase out. The cost associated with the Territory Plan variation is detailed in 2b above.

Abatement: drawing on data from Pitt and Sherry, we anticipate that that these measures will abate approximately 332kt of emissions in 2020. This represents a 15% contribution to the 40% target in 2020.

Pirate party: We support the functions of existing programs in this area and will vote to maintain solar rebate and tariffs at levels sufficient to provide a strong incentive for homeowners.

Labor: The Government has also committed to be carbon neutral in its own operations and services by 2020. An ACT Government Carbon Neutral Framework will be released in 2012 that will provide the necessary guidance to achieve this goal.

The 2012-13 Budget includes a new $5 million Carbon Neutral Government fund that will provide agencies with a loan facility to undertake projects designed to reduce emissions and help offset the cost of the impacts of the carbon tax. The projects completed under the fund will assist in the Government’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2020.

The Government itself occupies almost 90,000m2 of owned and leased office space and is implementing programs to reduce its carbon footprint as an example to other landlords and tenants.

The Government has also commenced a staged program for the replacement of inefficient, high-wattage streetlights with energy efficient alternatives. This is an ongoing program with the replacement of 9,600 high-wattage streetlights completed and the remainder due for replacement in the first half of 2012.

Liberal: No response.

Greens: What: Government required to source 90% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. We will also be setting annual energy efficiency targets for all government directorates, whereby directorates’ energy budgets will be reduced by 10% in 2013-14 and 5% annually thereafter (to 2020) to stimulate the implementation of energy efficiency measures. This is expected to result in energy efficiency savings of 30% from 2013-14 to 2020-21. The Greens will also commit to a review of ACT schools’ progress in meeting their 2017 Carbon Neutrality Target as well as the development of an action plan and, as necessary, additional funding to ensure that the 2017 target is met.

Date of Delivery: The energy efficiency targets will be applied annually to 2020. The 90% renewable energy target will be built up to exponentially by 2020.

Cost: The Greens plan to achieve carbon neutrality in government operations will generate net savings of $1.6 million over the next 4 years. (a) The Energy Efficiency Dividend will deliver savings of up to $12 million over the next 4 years (b) The Greens have allocated $10.3 million over the next 4 years for the renewable energy purchase target to be met (through a combination of GreenPower, Feed-in-Tariff pass through costs and purchase of ACT electricity which comprises an increasing proportion of renewable energy) (c) We have allocated $78,000 for a review and action plan for achieving Carbon Neutral Schools by 2017.

Abatement: abatement from these measures has been built into the commercial sector, residential sector and transport abatement outlined above.

Pirate party: The Pirate Party will also seek to remove legislative barriers to the integration of cooperative policies and practices between regions.

Labor: ACT Labor in Government has also established and delivered emissions reductions programs which are off-Budget, for example, the micro- and medium feed-in tariffs, the support for large scale solar through the ACT’s reverse auction process, and the Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living Improvement) Act.

90% from renewables by 2020; micro and medium FiTs; large scale solar power generation; Greenpower first choice obligation; energy efficiency legislation; community energy grants; national electricity consumer framework.

Liberal: No response.

Greens: What: 90% of electricity consumed in 2020 to come from renewable sources, with a requirement for at least 20% of total electricity consumption by 2020 to come from locally generated renewables (including the Renewable Generator Guarantee2, large-scale feed-in tariff projects, etc). The Greens will also deliver a decentralised energy roadmap for Canberra (to upgrade our grid so that it can deal with an increasing proportion of renewable energy), support greater community participation in renewable energy solutions, a roadmap for growing Canberra’s clean energy economy and improvements to the GreenPower scheme nationally.

Date of Delivery: The 90% total RE consumption target is due to be met by 30 June 2020 and will be built up to exponentially to minimise costs to the community. The Renewable Generator Guarantee will commence in 2013-14. The roadmaps and GreenPower reform are to be completed in 2013-14.

Cost: (a) When energy efficiency savings are accounted for, meeting the 90% RET will result in:
i. net savings to households as follows:

Year	Household Quarterly Electricity Bills ($)		Quarterly Bill Savings Achieved under Greens Policy
	Business-as-usual	Greens Policy
2013-14	407	402	5.10
2014-15	429	418	11.20
2015-16	452	435	17.66
2016-17	477	452	23.92
2020-21	588	552	35.13

The assumptions underpinning this modelling is available at: http://act.greens.org.au/sites/
greens.org.au/files/climate%20release%20appendix.pdf

ii. the following impact for government is a net cost in 2013-14 and 2014-15 followed by
annual savings to 2020-21:

Year	Net position ($mil)
2013-14	-1.16
2014-15	-0.11
2015-16	0.92
2016-17	1.96
2020-21	3.48

(b) The Greens are committing to a total of $250,000 for a clean energy roadmap ($80,000) and a
decentralised energy roadmap ($170,000).

All other renewable energy measures are cost-neutral.

Abatement: The 90% total electricity from renewables target will lead to abatement of approximately 1548kt in 2020 (of which 120kt is expected to be delivered through the RGG). This is approximately 70% of the abatement required to meet the 40% target in 2020.

Pirate party: We will seek to reform copyright laws to ensure that the acquisition of patents on renewable energy and other important technology no longer provides a means of shutting down scientific research (promising research avenues originating in the ACT have already been terminated in this way). Research patents which are not utilized in a reasonable time period will be returned to the public domain.

We will oblige ACTEW AGL to purchase power generation for solar panel systems over 30kW (currently this obligation only exists for small systems). The solar industry has requested this, citing the powerful incentive it would create for businesses to install solar PV systems (notably over some of the huge industrial roofing systems in places such as Fyshwick).

Labor: No response.

Liberal: No response.

Greens: Given current uncertainty of offset markets and that offsetting does not stimulate the structural and behavioural changes needed for long-term emissions reductions, the Greens do not support use of offsets in meeting the 40% target. Ensuring sustained, ambitious emission reductions and community-wide resilience to climate change impacts will require systemic and structural changes – both to our social and physical infrastructure. This is not compatible with relying upon external activities to offset a business-as-usual trajectory.

Pirate party: Allocate a sizeable increase in funding to community groups operating in the field of environmental conservation. A panel staffed by experts, peak bodies and community representatives will allocate these funds independent of political interference and micromanagement, and target the most promising projects.

Granting the community sector autonomy to allocate funding and set priorities (as detailed above) will immediately offset the need for “benchmarking” and onerous reporting to governments. We will grant greater autonomy to community groups to allocate time and resources in ways they judge most effective, and ensure that funds can be tailored to the needs of programs (instead of vice versa). We will also better align ACT standards to national benchmarks in order to further reduce reporting burdens. We plan to establish information sharing mechanisms to ensure that community groups are better informed about government decisions and policies.We believe this alternative funding and oversight model will give community groups a chance to set the agenda and be involved in the conception of policy as well as the execution. We want to assist community groups to operate freely in their spheres of expertise, testing different ideas and allowing the most successful practices to spread at the grassroots. We believe a stronger community sector can make a sizeable contribution to meeting our environmental targets.