Newcastle Residential Electricity and Gas Emission Reduction Strategy (summary)

Climate Action Newcastle, November 2024

Prepared by Alec Roberts, Kevin Sweeney, John Shiel, Christine Rogers and Ian Wilcox.

This emission reduction plan was developed during 2023 through a collaborative process that included volunteer research teams and monthly workshops that culminated in the Climate Action Summit at City Hall in November 2023.

Climate Action Newcastle acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we live and work on, the Awabakal and Worimi peoples, and pay respect to the Elders, past and present.

Residential CO2 Emissions

Reducing emissions from the residential sector is essential for two main reasons:

1.  Residential emissions are a major part of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions from the residential sector (including gas, electricity, transport and waste) make up 25% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. If export industries are excluded, emissions from the residential sector make up 42% of Australia’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions.1

2.  Residential emissions can be reduced now and can be reduced rapidly.

The technologies already exist to dramatically reduce residential greenhouse gas emissions. This is not the case for some other sectors such as heavy industry where commercially viable low emission technologies are not yet available. To achieve a 50% reduction in total emissions by 2030, it is essential to reduce residential emissions rapidly as this target cannot be met by other sectors in that time frame.

Residential emissions can be usefully thought of as all of the emissions that are determined by decisions made by the residents in a household.

This strategy document specifically focusses on residential electricity and gas. It is important to note, however, that emissions from transport (motor vehicles, air travel and holiday cruises) are a major component of total residential greenhouse gas emissions. These are dealt with in the transport strategy document. There are some strategies where it would be logical to combine residential electricity, gas and transport together e.g. in community education programs and provision of resources for the community.

Strategies

Residential gas and electricity

It is clear what needs to be done to reduce residential emissions:

●      Improve the energy efficiency of new and existing homes to reduce energy consumption and reduce energy bills

●      Electrify homes by moving away from gas as an energy source and use energy efficient electric appliances for heating and cooling, hot water and cooking

●      Switch to 100% renewable power

●      Install rooftop solar PV to provide cheap renewable power

●      Instal home batteries to store energy or utilise bi-directional charging from EVs

●      Transition to low emission transport options - public transport, cycling, walking, electric vehicles, bicycles and scooters (this is covered in the transport section)

But we need to work out how to get there.

There are ten key strategies to achieve this in Newcastle:

1.  Raise awareness in the community and provide education and resources

2.  Provide Relevant Services

1 Saul Griffith: The Big Switch, Black Inc., (2022)

3.  Revise Planning Controls

4.  Advocate to state and federal government for other regulatory changes

5.  Provide Rebates, Incentives and low cost finance

6.  Conduct bulk purchasing schemes of relevant equipment

7.  Support community-led renewable energy projects where appropriate

8.  Collaborate with businesses, utilities and high energy users to implement schemes that will reduce residential emissions

9.  Identify and apply for funding to support emission lowering initiatives

10.  Set measurable and meaningful targets

Details of the strategies

1a. Raise awareness in the community of the scale of household emissions and the importance of making reductions, by:

●      Promotion through traditional media - local radio, TV and newspapers (interviews, articles etc

●      Promotion through social media

●      Promotion through City of Newcastle channels (newsletter, mailout with rates notices, libraries, website, media and social media)

●      Promotion through environmental and community group channels

●      Recognition / Awards for CO2 emissions reduction – in order to educate and motivate

1b. Provide education and relevant resources with a focus on the practical aspects of how to reduce your CO2 emissions. Do this by:

●      Provision of information and links to resources through Council newsletter and mail outs and through community groups

●      Provision of detailed information and resources on the Council website and libraries

●      Provision of talks, workshops and webinars for community members who are seeking more detail and answers to questions

●      Support community groups to come together to share knowledge and ideas on how to reduce emissions using a small group model. These groups could be based on any type of social network e.g. your local street, sporting groups, workplace, men’s shed, book clubs, special interest groups, religious communities, cultural communities, Rotary and Lions clubs etc

●      Provision of educational materials for schools

●      Provision of talks and workshops for schools to engage students and utilise them as agents of change in households

●      Involve community experts and volunteers in the development and delivery of these education initiatives

●      Provide access to equipment for home energy audits on a loan basis (e.g. thermal imaging camera)

Education and resources would include topics such as: how to measure your household CO2 emissions, how to do a home energy audit, home retrofits to make them energy efficient, Greenpower, solar PV, home batteries, using efficient appliances such as heat

pumps, induction cooktops and electric BBQs, how to transition from gas to electricity, how to disconnect from gas at low cost, reducing emissions from motor vehicle use, electric vehicles, imminent bidirectional charging, reducing emissions from air travel and holiday cruises, links to existing rebates and incentives, sources of low cost or interest free loans for emission reduction, information on solar PV for apartment blocks, strata and renters, etc.

2.  Provide Relevant Services

●      Directly provide, or subsidise, the provision of a ‘home energy audit’ service across the LGA to assist households to reduce their energy consumption, reduce their bills, and reduce their CO2 emissions. This could be done using the existing tool, the Residential Efficiency Scorecard, developed by the Vic Government; this involves a qualified assessor delivering tailored advice to each homeowner.

●      Develop a retro-fit energy efficiency service or program for low income households and tenants that can easily be initiated by the occupant

●      Provide or facilitate the provision of kerbside recharging for electric vehicles

●      Provide community gardens

3.  Revise Planning Controls

Update Council controlled regulations that would result in a reduction of residential emissions, including:

●      Require new builds and renovations to be fully electric (and prohibiting new gas connections)

●      Require that gas appliances, at end of life, are replaced with electric appliances

●      Consider prohibiting the installation of new wood heaters and the removal of existing wood heaters before a property can be sold

●      Consider the banning of wood heaters in urban areas

●      Review existing regulations that may inadvertently prevent emission reduction (e.g. remove restrictions on rooftop solar in heritage areas)

●      Newcastle Council to consider adopting all of the recommendations for local councils in the Every Building Counts 2023 Report (PCA & GBCA, 2023)

●      Consider requiring new housing developments to meet minimum requirements for green space, mature trees, solar PV, and community battery for storage

●      Support mandatory disclosure and high building standards to help control internal temperatures in homes to reduce the need for artificial heating and cooling

●      Support better estate masterplans so that streets and Lots are aligned to allow more solar energy into homes e.g. with long axes of most Lots facing North.

4.  Advocate to state and federal government for other regulatory changes

Where regulations are a State or Federal matter, advocate for the relevant changes, including:

●      Mandatory disclosure of Energy Efficiency for new dwellings at the time of purchase (including purchase off the plan)

●      Mandatory disclosure of Energy Efficiency for existing dwellings at the time of sale and lease

●      Establishment of a zero emissions household certification process

●      Establishment of a policy framework and support for bidirectional charging of EVs

●      Establishment of a policy framework and support for transition to a circular economy

●      Increasing the BASIX standards and other relevant standards

●      Advocate for the development and adoption of a legal model to enable solar/batteries and other emission reduction changes in shared buildings (may need revised Strata By-Laws)

5.  Provide access to rebates, incentives and low cost finance

●      Provide a resource with links to existing rebates, incentives and low cost finance

●      Provide rebates to address gaps in the current system of rebates/incentives or to supplement them

●      Provide a loan for emission reduction hardware where the loan is paid off over time as part of the rates, e.g. for solar panels, heat pump etc. This effectively means that the loan is attached to the house, not the current owner

●      Provide additional support and incentives for renters and landlords

6.  Bulk purchasing of relevant equipment

This could include Solar PV, home batteries, heat pumps etc.

7.  Support community-led renewable energy projects where appropriate

Community-led renewable energy projects can provide a more cost effective energy solution. This is particularly true for rural communities but may be applicable in some urban environments as well. This can include:

●      Community scale solar PV

●      Community scale wind power

●      Community scale batteries and virtual power plants (VPP)

8.  Collaborate with businesses, utilities and high energy users to implement schemes that will reduce residential emissions

●      Collaborate with Jemena to utilise Google Street View Cars fitted with methane monitors to map gas leaks in Newcastle and reduce fugitive emissions

●      Collaborate with locally headquartered banks such as the Newcastle Permanent/Greater Bank to push for and use energy efficiency ratings for dwellings. Encourage them to provide green loans that acknowledge low emissions dwellings

9.  Identify and apply for funding to support emission-lowering initiatives

10.  Set measurable and meaningful targets

●      For each of the adopted strategies it is important to set targets that are measurable and that meaningfully reflect the desired outcome

●      Progress against these targets should be monitored and reported regularly and strategies assessed against these results

Full details of these strategies are provided in the Newcastle Residential Electricity and Gas Emission Reduction Strategy document, including the rationale, discussion of who could be involved, and examples of where these strategies have been implemented (p41-50). That document also provides a comprehensive summary of the emissions data relating to the Newcastle LGA.

The document also includes:

●      examples of pathways to lower emissions across the areas of retrofits, appliances, occupant behaviour and energy generation and storage,

●      two scenarios that estimate how much carbon could be saved in the Newcastle LGA if these pathways were followed, as well as an estimate of the solar generation needed to meet net zero energy by 2030.