Insulation industry welcomes ALP focus on demand-side solutions to address climate change
29/Apr/2007
The Insulation Council of Australia & New Zealand (ICANZ) today welcomed the announcement by the ALP of a $300 million energy efficiency package for Australian households.
Dennis D'Arcy, ICANZ President, said that there are enormous economic, environmental and social benefits to be gained through demand-side solutions to the challenge of climate change, and improving the extent of insulation across Australia's housing stock is the most important.
"According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics almost 40 percent of Australian homes do not have ceiling insulation. These homes, many of them rental properties, waste energy and produce enormous quantities of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions.
"Installing effective insulation into uninsulated homes creates substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions now, not in ten years or more," Mr D'Arcy said.
A recent major report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)* focused on the substantial and immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that can be achieved at low cost by improving the energy efficiency of buildings, particularly homes.
"The UNEP report highlighted the fact that greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector accounts for 30-40 percent of global energy use, and that substantial benefits can be gained at low cost by improving the energy efficiency of buildings.
"Here in Australia this is particularly relevant because we have among the least energy efficient housing stock in the developed world," Mr D'Arcy said.
* The UNEP Report Buildings and Climate Change: Status, Challenges and Opportunities can be downloaded from the web page www.unep.org:80/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=502&ArticleID=5545&l=en
