Upcoming Mallesons seminarsCompanies who are covered by the Federal or State greenhouse gas and energy reporting schemes.
What do you need to do?Plan for the coming changes, and make a submission to the Commonwealth in the interim.
Eliza Bergin
Senior Associate
Stephen Davis
Partner
T +61 3 9643 4107
Melbourne
Stephen Davis
The Commonwealth has committed to removing regulatory overlap between the various greenhouse gas and energy use reporting schemes in place throughout Australia, from 1 July 2008. These proposed changes provide opportunities for you to streamline reporting and compliance systems.
What changes are proposed?
EEO and NGER
Firstly, the proposed changes should allow companies to remove overlap and duplication in meeting reporting obligations under the Federal Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) scheme and the recently introduced National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme.
In a joint press release dated 26 April 2008, Federal Resources and Energy Minister Ferguson and Climate Change Minister Wong announced proposed amendments to EEO to enable participating companies to streamline reporting requirements for EEO and NGER.
The Energy Efficiency Opportunities Act 2006 (Cth) requires companies using more than 0.5 petajoules of energy to identify and implement opportunities for energy efficiency, and to publicly report the results. The EEO program is reported to cover around 60 per cent of Australia’s total business energy usage. Meanwhile, data collected from companies under National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Cth) and NGER will form the basis for the proposed emissions trading scheme.
The Federal Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism is now consulting interested stakeholders on the proposed amendments. Register your interest in consultations here.
Future EEO reports will be conducted through the Online System for Comprehensive Activity Reporting (OSCAR) - the reporting system through which NGER reporting occurs. This is expected to be in place in time for those EEO reports due on 31 December 2008.
Federal and State reporting schemes
Secondly, efforts are also being made to harmonise these Federal reporting schemes with overlapping State reporting schemes.
For example, the Victorian Energy and Resource Efficiency Plans scheme implemented under the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic) and the Environment Protection (Energy and Resource Efficiency Plans) Regulations 2007 (Vic) similarly applies to high-energy using businesses, yet imposes registration, reporting and efficiency obligations which are different to EEO.
The Queensland Government is also acting on the imperative to streamline reporting requirements. On 29 April 2008, the Clean Energy Bill 2008 (Qld) was introduced into Parliament, proposing to create yet another greenhouse and energy reporting scheme. However, the proposed Queensland scheme expressly excludes those businesses already covered by EEO.
National Pollutant Inventory
In June 2007, the National Environment Protection Measure (National Pollutant Inventory) was extended to greenhouse gases. We anticipate that the proposed reforms will also clarify the interface for reporting of greenhouse gas emissions under NEPM(NPI).
What should you do?
If your business is covered by more than one of these reporting schemes, you may wish to make a submission to the Commonwealth by 12 May 2008.
It is important to be absolutely clear which schemes require you to register and report.
You will also need to assess you measurement and reporting practices in light of the impending changes.
If you would like assistance to determine how to comply with the streamlined schemes, or to draft a submission on the proposed reforms, please contact us.