$5.2 billion saving to households and businesses under new national energy efficiency framework

Australia will soon have a national framework to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses, forecast to result in energy savings worth $5.2 billion in 2020 alone.

The Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Mark Dreyfus, yesterday introduced the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (GEMS) legislation to Parliament following agreement between the Gillard government, the New Zealand government and states and territories.

“Energy efficiency is one of the simplest ways for households and businesses of all sizes to save money through smarter energy use and reduce dangerous greenhouse gas pollution,” said Dreyfus.

“GEMS will accelerate the rollout of more efficient household appliances, commercial equipment and industrial machines, and replaces seven state and territory legal frameworks with a single, consistent national law and regulator.”

GEMS will incorporate the Equipment Energy Efficiency Program (E3) set that has minimum energy performance standards for more than 20 years and successfully removed inefficient products from the market.

“The new framework will help households and businesses that don’t have time or resources to gather information about energy-smart options that will cut their energy bills.

“It will provide the public with information to identify and demand better products using the familiar yellow and red Energy Rating Label - an effective incentive for manufacturers to keep improving the efficiency of their products,” Dreyfus said.

“The E3 program has been one of the quiet achievers of Australia’s emissions mitigation efforts and GEMS will expand on that work. It’s projected to deliver more than 20% of Australia’s emissions abatement in 2020 and forecast to help save households and businesses some 32,000 GWh of energy compared to business as usual. This equates to approximately $5.2 billion in energy savings in 2020.

“Improving energy efficiency is a central element of the government’s Clean Energy Future plan as it will increase the productivity of our economy and move Australia towards an energy-smart, low-pollution future.”

Information about the background to the GEMS legislation can be found here.