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The Second Plank – Building a Low Carbon Economy with Energy Efficient Buildings

The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council’s (ASBEC) Climate Change Task Group (CCTG) commissioned economic analysis by the Centre for International Economics (CIE) to assist in stimulating discussion about the complementary role that energy efficiency can play in supporting the Australian Government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).  

The report produced, ‘The Second Plank – Building a Low Carbon Economy with Energy Efficient Buildings’ responds to the fact  that residential and commercial buildings (the building sector) are responsible for almost a quarter (23%) of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. It estimates that the Government’s proposed CPRS will result in the building sector saving eight mega tonnes per annum of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG)– far short of the building sector’s full GHG abatement potential. 

Download full report The second plank – building a low carbon economy with energy efficient buildings pdf file 1.5MB 

Download Summary  ASBEC @ work 2nd plank report

Capitalising on the building sector’s potential to lessen the costs of a broad based GHG emissions cut.

This study commissioned by the ASBEC Climate Change Task Group extended the Australian Business Roundtable on Climate Change (BRCC) analysis to include a more detailed analysis of the significant energy efficiency potential of the building sector.

Key Research Findings:

• The building sector is responsible for 23 per cent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions, and energy use in buildings is rapidly growing.
• Electricity demand in residential and commercial buildings can be halved by 2030, and reduced by more than 70 per cent by 2050 through energy efficiency.
• Energy efficiency alone could deliver savings of 30-35 per cent across the whole building sector including the growth in the overall number of buildings out to 2050.
• Energy savings in the building sector (which accounts for 60 per cent of GDP and 23 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions) could reduce the costs of greenhouse gas abatement across the whole economy by $30 per tonne, or 14 per cent, by 2050.
• By 2050, GDP could be improved by around $38 billion per year if building sector energy efficiency is adopted, compared to previous economy-wide estimates of the 60 % deep cuts scenario.

Australia’s ability to achieve at least 60 per cent deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will be significantly enhanced by transforming buildings to deliver energy savings.

Download Report - Building Sector Potential - Sept13 pdf | 353 kB