Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank members of the government for assisting me to deliver my contribution on this bill. Labor supports energy conservation. Labor's Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act of 2010 established a legal requirement for owners of large commercial office buildings to obtain energy efficiency information for their building and to disclose it to prospective purchasers and lessees. It also required head tenants who were subletting office spaces to disclose this information. The energy efficiency information disclosed is in the form of a building energy efficiency certificate. This certificate includes a star rating of the building's energy efficiency, an assessment of tenancy lighting, and additional guidance on how the energy efficiency of the office may be improved.

The commercial building sector is responsible for around 10 per cent of Australia's total greenhouse gas emissions, and this figure is rising. It needs to be pointed out that energy efficiency represents one of the fastest and cheapest ways we can reduce our nation's greenhouse gas emissions. Credible energy efficiency information helps parties to make better informed decisions and to take full account of the economic costs and the environmental impacts associated with operating the buildings they are intending to purchase or to lease.

Energy efficiency requirements are an important complementary measure in the suite of policies we need for addressing climate change, such as for new homes and major renovations. Part of the five-star standard, which is now up to six stars, is a requirement for new homes in Victoria to have either a solar hot water heater or a rainwater tank. These are cheap things to install when you are building a house, but more expensive to retrofit later. Many builders do not seriously consider them because they are going for the absolute lowest total cost they can. But they are simple changes which do no harm to people's standard of living, but have huge, positive impacts concerning water and energy use.

The energy used by our buildings accounts for approximately 20 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, split fairly evenly between homes and commercial buildings. The business sector is by far the largest energy user in the Australian economy. The industrial sector alone accounts for almost half of Australia's energy end-use and for around two-thirds of stationary energy use. Australia has one of the more energy intensive industrial sectors among developed countries. Energy consumed by residential appliances and industrial and commercial equipment is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia.

As well as the benefits in reduced greenhouse gas emissions, the Commercial Building Disclosure program has a much broader range of impacts, which are not always captured or measured, such as increased industry capacity and potential building upgrades, that go beyond improving just the energy efficiency of a building and may improve water use, indoor environment quality or other elements. A recent World Green Building Council report provides information regarding the benefits that greener buildings can have on health, wellbeing and productivity.

It is now also well documented that buildings with an environmental rating deliver better returns, so the Commercial Building Disclosure program is helping to deliver increased value in the market. The Building better returns report of 2011 found that Green Star rated buildings deliver a 12 per cent green premium in value and a five per cent premium in rent when compared to non-rated buildings. Quarterly research by IPD also shows that the Green Star and NABERS rated buildings outperform non-rated buildings. The International Energy Agency's Energy Efficiency MarketReport 2014 found that energy efficiency improvements in 11 countries, including Australia, delivered more capacity than any other source of energy.

Greener offices are not only more comfortable to work in, they can also boost productivity, bring down sick leave, support green building-industry jobs and have the potential to deliver savings of 20 to 40 per cent on energy bills. Energy efficiency is a fast, cheap way of making inroads into Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. We need to do that, because Australia has become an international embarrassment on climate change action.

According to a group of senior British conservatives, the attitude of Prime Minister Tony Abbott to the global challenges of climate change is 'eccentric', 'baffling' and 'flat earther'. The group—including Prime Minister David Cameron's minister for energy, a former Thatcher minister and chairman of the Conservative Party—says Mr Abbott's position on climate change represents a betrayed of the fundamental ideals of conservatism and those of his political heroine, Margaret Thatcher. Twenty-five years ago, former British Prime Minister Thatcher addressed the United Nations and placed climate change firmly on the global environmental agenda. She said:

It is mankind and his activities which are changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways.

These British conservatives warn that Australia is taking enormous risks investing in coal, and will come under increasing market and political pressure to play its part in the global battle against climate change.

According to Lord Deben, chairman of the Independent Climate Change Commission and a minister in both the Thatcher and Major governments, Australia will come under increasing market pressure to respond to the global shift towards renewable energy. Lord Deben said that Mr Abbott had betrayed the fundamental tenets of conservatism itself. He has been quoted as saying:

I have no doubt that people like David Cameron will be saying to Tony Abbott 'look conservatives are supposed to conserve, they are supposed to hand on to the next generation something better than they received themselves'.

Indeed! Tim Yeo, the chairman of the UK's parliamentary select committee on Energy and Climate Change and a former environment minister under John Major, said:

If I was Australian I would be concerned if my country's economic future and prosperity became dependent upon continued coal exports.

The United Kingdom led the world in 2008 by legislating for long-term, ambitious emissions reductions of 80 per cent by 2050. They have already achieved a 25 per cent drop on 1990 levels. In June, David Cameron opened the world's largest offshore wind farm with 175 turbines in the Thames Estuary. Almost 20 per cent of Britain's electricity is now produced by renewables, with eight per cent powered by wind—equivalent to 6½ million homes.

The UK's energy market reforms and the drive to transform the economy to a low-carbon model are supported by all the major political parties. David Cameron's former Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Greg Barker, said:

I think there is a lot of concern about Australia … people are concerned, slightly baffled by the approach that Australia is taking which looks, actually, slightly eccentric.

You know that your climate change agenda is in trouble when your traditional conservative allies start seeing you as a pre-science troglodyte.

This was further highlighted when the world's two superpowers signed a climate change deal, which I believe is the best news on international action to tackle climate change in nearly 20 years—the best news since the Kyoto protocol. It is an absolutely stunning agreement. China has agreed to ramp up its renewable energy target by one third—over 30 per cent—compared to its previous offer. This will build a massive solar PV industry. Secondly, it has agreed to level-out its emissions by 2030. Given that China's emissions accounted for 70 per cent of the global increase in emissions in 2012, this is a huge turnaround. It is a world away from the sabotage they engaged in at Copenhagen, which I strongly criticised at the time.

What did we hear from government ministers about this historic agreement? The Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development said it was a distraction. Indeed, the trade minister, Treasurer and foreign minister all lined up to have a crack. The foreign minister went so far as to send a briefing to the White House in response to President Obama's speech on climate change and the impact that it will have on the Great Barrier Reef.

The foreign minister said that she did not believe the reef was in danger. That is a view that contradicts the scientific consensus that it is in danger. For example, the Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2014 from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said:

Climate change remains the most serious threat to the Great Barrier Reef. It is already affecting the reef and is likely to have far-reaching consequences in the decades to come.

It seems that only this government fails to accept that climate change is going to take a significant toll on our Great Barrier Reef unless we take action now. The diplomatic push-back against the United States was petulant, and underscores how isolated Australia is becoming on climate change—an international embarrassment, a shag on a rock.

The government has been put on the back foot by the US-China deal, and by comments from world leaders, during and after the G20 summit, highlighting the importance of global action to address climate change, including contributions to the international Green Climate Fund. Even Canada, a country that previously lined up with Australia against contributions to the Green Climate Fund, has now come on board with a $300 million contribution. Thirty countries have pledged $9.3 billion to the fund—just shy of a $10 billion target—to help developing countries cut emissions and prepare for global warming.

The South Korea-based Green Climate Fund aims to help nations invest in clean energy and green technology and build up defences against rising seas and worsening storms, floods and droughts. Money will be spent equally for climate change adaptation and mitigation, especially for the most vulnerable nations, including small island nations and Africa's poorest countries. The fund is designed to help those countries least to blame for, but most at risk from, climate change, with grants, loans and private capital for projects such as solar and wind farms, planting trees or disaster-proofing infrastructure. While other countries are contributing, Australia has ruled out contributing.

The UN climate experts have cautioned that there is no time to lose in the battle against global warming. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in November that time is running out to limit warming to two degrees Celsius by 2100 on pre-industrial levels. They said we are on a likely trajectory for at least a four-degree Celsius warming, which is a recipe for melting ice caps, extreme weather events, habitat and species loss, and conflict over access to scarce resources.

Some of the key risks that were identified included: low-lying coastal zones and small islands being vulnerable to storm surges; more frequent flooding in urban areas; breakdown in infrastructure and critical services such as electricity, water supply, health and emergency services due to increases in extreme weather events; increase in deaths and illness due to extreme heatwaves; risk of food insecurity due to warming, drought and flooding; significant drops in agricultural production and rural livelihoods; loss of marine and coastal ecosystems with significant impacts on fishing communities and industry; and threats to native species and ecosystems.

The IPCC report focused on the risks posed by global warming, concluding that in many cases the world is ill prepared. Indeed, the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef topped the local risk list, with the IPCC warning that permanent damage is inevitable. Our leading coral reefs marine scientist and lead author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said mitigation strategies, such as improving water quality and reducing fishing pressure, will only 'buy time' for the reef.

The Climate Institute said:

The IPCC report places priority on the decarbonisation of energy supply systems. It notes that scenarios likely to achieve the internationally agreed goal of avoiding 2C of warming require energy emissions to decline over the next decade and be reduced by 90 per cent or more from 2040.

The report is clear that humanity is influencing our climate, with changes unprecedented for decades to millennia, and which now threaten our prosperity, security and natural environment.”

This is a consensus document agreed by the world’s top scientists and governments, and is a conservative stocktake that should serve to spur more urgent action on climate change.

Indeed, just this morning, I was one of those MPs who received a petition put forward by many women concerned about climate change and the lack of action occurring in Australia on this front. I commend those women for their civic-mindedness and their concern for this nation's future.

The Climate Institute also said:

Australia is one of the developed countries most exposed to climate impacts in an Asia-Pacific region likely to be severely disrupted by climate change. It is in our national interest to act and encourage others to do more.

For Australia to play our fair part in global emission reductions after 2020, emission reductions will have to be much stronger than Australia's current target range of 5-25 percent emission reductions by 2020. A domestic policy framework that can't achieve this scale of emission reduction by 2030 is neither sustainable nor economically prudent.

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