GEMS legislation introduced into parliament

The Australian Government has introduced the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (GEMS) legislation to parliament.

The GEMS legislation is an important initiative that implements a 2009 commitment by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to introduce national legislation to regulate equipment energy efficiency and to expand energy-efficiency regulation into new product areas. This occurred following the council’s publication of Australia’s National Strategy on Energy Efficiency to improve minimum standards for energy efficiency in Australia and encourage innovation in energy-efficient technologies and approaches.

As part of the Strategy, Australian Governments agreed to establish national legislation for minimum energy performance standards (MEPS). This legislation will transfer Australia’s existing Equipment Energy Efficiency (E3) Program to a national framework, addressing inefficiencies and inconsistencies that have arisen in the state-regulated program over the past 20 years. It will replace seven state and territory legal frameworks with a single, consistent national law and will also replace four existing state regulators with one national energy-efficiency regulator.

The national legislation will also allow for the expansion of the E3 Program into new product areas, which will drive greater efficiency in products that use energy or affect the energy use of other products (eg, insulation and window glass). In the past the E3 Program has focused on electrical products, rather than products that use gas and other fuel or products that affect energy use.

These improvements will ensure the E3 Program addresses three of Australia’s most important policy objectives: reducing Australians’ energy bills, simplifying transactions for business and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The improved E3 Program under the GEMS legislation is forecast to save households and businesses over $5 billion in energy costs in the year 2020 alone.