A new report says Australia is doing dismally on cutting energy use, at the ‘back of the pack’ when compared to most of the world.
Over nearly a decade starting in 2002 Australia reportedly cut energy consumption by just 1%, way behind places like Europe & Japan……and with even the USA cutting it by 12%.
That shocked me I must say as I thought Australia was doing ok. It clearly also shocked the government which is now asking for our opinion on the country’s energy performance.
The online survey will be used to create a National Energy Strategy by mid next year and crucially looks at homes, businesses and industry. In other words everything that uses energy.
In particular they’ll be looking at “energy efficiency, load shifting, fuel switching and behaviour change”.
Just to be clear, ‘load shifting refers to rooftop solar shifting some electricity use from night to day, while ‘fuel switching’ can mean replacing gas heating with a more efficient electric heat pump.
But ‘energy efficiency’ will be key, and a national, uniform and consistent approach is long overdue.
Of course governments and industry keep tightening energy efficiency goals—our own zero emission copper mines and Smart Wiring projects are great examples of that—but it still means standards and outcomes are all over the place across the country.
Sadly politics and economics can get in the way of all those good intentions, but lowering energy use cuts costs for homes, businesses & industry. Its also good for our climate.
This is an important survey & all our opinions need to be heard.
Cheers, John Fennell