Greenhouse gases blow out - again

Friday, 26 November 1999 10:00

The report of the Licence Compliance Advisory Board (LCAB), released yesterday, shows an ever widening gap between the state target and electricity emissions.

"It is clear that retailers are not taking greenhouse gas reduction seriously," said Jeff Angel of Total Environment Centre.

"The LCAB report shows that most retailers are failing to implement even their own environmental strategies-savings from energy efficiency are less than half of what they predicted for this year, and investment in renewable energy is way down."

"If retailers are unable to make the effort to meet strategies that they themselves have devised, what chance is there that they will take government targets seriously?"

The report also reveals that coal-fired power stations, which produce most of the electricity used in NSW, are producing more greenhouse gas emissions per unit of electricity than ever before. Retailers bought only 2.6% of their energy from renewable energy generators, or low-emission sources like natural gas-fired cogeneration.

"While retailers continue to source most of their electricity from coal and pay only token attention energy efficiency and renewable energy, greenhouse pollution in NSW will continue to spiral out of control," said Sebastian Crawford, of the Community Information Project on Sustainable Energy.

Retailers are required by the Electricity Supply Act 1995 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 7.27 tonnes per capita by 2000/01, but have failed to adopt a downward track in the last two years.