Fed: Govt depts cut greenhouse gases, saving $30 mln a year

AAP General News (Australia)
12-31-2003
Fed: Govt depts cut greenhouse gases, saving $30 mln a year

By Shane Wright

CANBERRA, Dec 31 AAP - Federal government departments have cut their greenhouse gas
emissions for the fifth consecutive year and in doing so saved $30 million in energy bills.

A mix of environmentally-friendly power sources, more efficient technology and better
lighting systems has contributed to the 0.8 per cent cut in greenhouse emissions.

The Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), in a report into energy and greenhouse emissions
by government departments, found total energy consumption fell by 1.15 per cent.

The AGO said federal departments, agencies and commonwealth buildings used 22.9 million
gigajoules of energy through 2002-03, which produced 2.6 million tonnes of greenhouse
gases.

When defence establishments, which do not fall within the government's energy policy
programs, were excluded, total energy use was 8.1 million gigajoules.

This produced 1.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

The reduction in energy use is now saving the government around $30 million a year.

The AGO said a series of initiatives by departments had led to the reduction in energy
use and in greenhouse gases.

"While activity changes may have caused some of this reduction, much can be directly
attributed to improvements in energy intensity, thereby indicating that the Australian
government is becoming more efficient in its energy use," it said.

"Implementation of computer power management systems, improving efficiency of lighting
systems and the introduction of lighting control systems, moving to more energy efficient
premises and better monitoring and targeting systems are some of the vehicles by which
agencies have achieved this improvement."

Better light and power systems have cut by almost 4,000 megajoules per person a year
the energy used by government tenants in public buildings.

Total greenhouse gas emissions from government departments have now dropped 12.7 per
cent since 1998-99.

One of the major improvements has come through the use of "greenpower", which is power
generated from sources which do not produce greenhouse gases.

Energy consumption from greenpower sources increased almost 200 per cent to 105,000
gigajoules, although electricity (5.3 million gigajoules) and natural gas (1.2 million
gigajoules) remain the most common sources of energy.

Most government departments are taking up greenpower, except some such as the ABC.

"Some agencies, like the ABC, have chosen to opt out of an earlier commitment to purchase
greenpower with a view to investigating the resulting savings in cost effective energy
efficiency measures," it said.

Just one department, defence, has failed to meet its long term target of reduced energy
consumption.

But the AGO said extra demands on defence, such as the war on terror, East Timor and
Iraq, had made it very difficult for the department to cut energy requirements.

AAP sw/cbs/de \

KEYWORD: ENERGY

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