2020-02-13
Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability Shane Rattenbury has today announced new funding to help reduce carbon emissions and to strengthen the ACT’s resilience to climate change.
“The ACT’s 100% renewable electricity achievement highlights how we are a national leader in action against climate change,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“But this is an ongoing battle and we must continually work to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to zero, and to adapt to the changing climate.”
“Today’s mid-year budget announcements will help the ACT find new ways to reduce household energy use, transition to zero emission vehicles, and help the community to drive climate change solutions.”
The mid-year Budget includes funding over four years for:
- $757,000 to improve energy performance for households. This includes introducing minimum energy standards for rental properties in the 2022–23 financial year after a two-year transition period. It will also support work on a residential energy assessment tool appropriate for Canberra’s changing climate to help encourage climate-wise buildings with high thermal performance.
- $97,000 to help introduce changes to the planning system to meet the actions set out in the Living Infrastructure Plan: Cooling the City.
- $1,029,000 to install electric vehicle charging stations to support the transition to a zero-emissions vehicle fleet, a key action of the Zero Emissions Vehicles Action Plan 2018–21.
- $574,000 to employ a dedicated climate change community leadership officer to support and enable community-driven solutions to climate change.
- $848,000 for the delivery of the new Sustainable Energy Policy 2020–25. This provides support for a strategy to ensure our energy supply remains affordable, reliable and sustainable into the future. This also includes a new renewable electricity auction for generation and storage to guarantee we continue to have 100% renewable electricity into the future.
Statement ends
Media contact: Lisa Wills M 0481 035 764 lisa.wills@act.gov.au