Greenhouse challenge plus: A new departure or more of the same?

Environmental and Planning Law Journal

Volumn 23, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 60-73

  Sullivan, Rory ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 35648955425     PISSN: 0813300X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (103)

1. The evaluation of the Greenhouse Challenge is based on research conducted for the author's PhD (subsequently published as Sullivan R, Rethinking Voluntary Approaches in Environmental Policy (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)).
2. Houghton J, Ding Y, Griggs D, Noguer M, Van der Linden P and Xiaosu D, Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
3. Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, A Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australia's Response to Global Warming - October 1999 (Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, 1999); Business Council of Australia, Statement of Climate Change Policy Principles (Business Council of Australia, 1999);
4. Knapp R, Australian Aluminium Council Submission to the Senate ECITA Committee Inquiry into the Kyoto Protocol Ratification Bill 2003 [No 2] 30 January 2004 (Australian Aluminium Council, 2004); Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association, Submission to Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts in Relation to its Inquiry into the Kyoto Protocol Ratification Bill 2003 (No 2) January 2004 (Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association, 2004). It is interesting to note that industry views are not homogenous with, for example, BP calling on the Business Council of Australia's members to adopt individual plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions
5. Wilson N, "Business Told to Cut Emissions", The Australian (4 August 2005) at http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/ (viewed 9 January 2006).
6. Australia is required to cap its greenhouse gas emissions at 108% of its 1990 emissions, to be achieved on an annual basis over the five years from 2008 to 2012.
7. Australian Greenhouse Office, AGO Annual Report 2003/2004 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2004) p 17.
8. Howard J, Downer A, MacFarlane I and Campbell I, Australia Joins New Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (Joint Press Release, 28 July 2005) at http://www.pm.gov.au/news/media_releases/media_Release1482.html (viewed 9 January 2006).
9. Australian Greenhouse Office, The National Greenhouse Strategy (Australian Greenhouse Office, 1998).
10. Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, Securing Australia's Energy Future (Commonwealth of Australia, 2004).
11. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 5.
12. Campbell I, 2002 State and Territory Inventories (Australia, Department of Environment and Heritage, Press Release, 12 June 2005).
13. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 5, p 15; Australian Greenhouse Office, Tracking to the Kyoto Target 2004: Australian Greenhouse Gas Emission Trends 1990 to 2008-12 and 2020 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2004).
14. Australia's greenhouse gas emissions in 2003 totalled 550.1 MT CO2(eq), an increase of 1.1% over the 1990 levels of 544.1 MT CO2(eq). Emissions from stationary sources (electricity generation, petroleum refining, gas processing, solid fuel manufacturing, manufacturing industries, construction) contributed 48.7% of total national emissions, transport contributed 14.5% and agriculture contributed 17.7% (see further Australian Greenhouse Office, National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2003. Part A (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2005) p 16.
15. See, for example, Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Conservation Foundation Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Global Warming (Australian Conservation Foundation, 1999).
16. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Evaluation Report (Australian Greenhouse Office, 1999);
17. Lipman Z and Bates G, Pollution Law in Australia (Butterworths, 2002) p 89
18. Parker C, "The Greenhouse Challenge: Trivial Pursuit?" (1999) 16 EPLJ 63 at 69.
19. Howard J, Safeguarding the Future: Australia's Response to Climate Change at http://www.pm.gov.au/news/media_releases/1997/GREEN.html (viewed 9 January 2006).
20. Cooperative Agreements can be viewed at www.greenhouse.gov.au/cgi-bin/challenge/displaysearch.pl?page=agreements (viewed, 9 January 2006).
21. Commonwealth of Australia, Government Response to "The Heat is On: Australia's Greenhouse Future" (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2001).
22. The Australian Greenhouse Office is the Australian government's lead agency with responsibility for delivering policy advice and implementing programmes relating to climate change; see further www.greenhouse.gov.au (viewed 9 January 2006).
23. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Independent Verification Program: Verification and Reporting Guidelines 2: Verification Guidelines (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000).
24. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Independent Verification Program: Verification and Reporting Guidelines 1: Verification Information (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000).
25. There were three rounds of independent verification, a pilot programme in 1998, and two complete rounds in 2000 (Australian Greenhouse Office, Independent Verification Under the Greenhouse Challenge - 2000. Findings and Discussion Report: February 2001 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2001)) and 2002 (Australian Greenhouse Office, Report on Independent Verification of the Greenhouse Challenge Programme 2002 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2003)). Because of industry concerns regarding confidentiality, the report of the first complete round of verifications simply stated whether the reported inventory and actions undertaken were materially accurate or not. Greater information was provided in the report of the 2002 verification process, with (in situations where there was a material discrepancy) the report detailing the percentage error but not providing information on the actual greenhouse gas emissions from the organisations involved.
26. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Members' Logo Guidelines (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000).
27. Australian Greenhouse Office, Guidelines for the Cooperative Agreements Program (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000); Parker, n 14, p 66.
28. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Implementation Plan 2003 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2003).
29. Howard, n 15.
30. This was a reduction on the 824 members at 30 June 2003 (Australian Greenhouse Office, Annual Report 2002-2003 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2003)) The Australian Greenhouse Office noted that some SMEs had withdrawn because of problems in meeting new programme reporting requirements (Australian Greenhouse Office, n 5, p 26).
31. Australian Greenhouse Office, Annual Report 1999-2000 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2000).
32. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 14, pp 12, 24-28.
33. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 14, pp 12, 24-28.
34. Australian Greenhouse Office, Annual Report 2001/2002 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2002).
35. Sullivan, n 1, pp 110-111.
36. Australia, Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee, The Heat is On: Australia's Greenhouse Future (Commonwealth of Australia, 2000).
37. National Audit Office, The Administration of Major Programs: Australian Greenhouse Office (National Audit Office, 2004) p 82.
38. Australian Greenhouse Office, National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1999 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2001) at A-15- A-19.
39. While specific targets have not been defined, a stabilisation target of 550 parts per million by volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (ie a doubling of the pre-industrial level) is a widely used benchmark
40. Janssen M and De Vries B, "Climate Policy Targets and the Role of Technological Change" (2000) 46 Climatic Change 1 at 1). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that achieving this target would require an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 60% (Houghton et al, n 2, pp 69-124). Given the need to allow growth in the developed countries, this means that developed countries such as Australia would probably need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 80% or more.
41. Australia Institute, Assessment of Policies: The Greenhouse Challenge Program. Submission to Senate Environment References Committee Inquiry into Australia's Response to Global Warming (Australia Institute, 2000) p 3.
42. Krarup S and Ramesohl S, Voluntary Agreements in Energy Policy - Implementation and Efficiency (AKF Institute of Local Government Studies, 2000) p 37.
43. In a review of the activities of the Australian Greenhouse Office, the National Audit Office noted that the emissions reductions claimed for the Greenhouse Challenge did not take account of (a) what would have happened in the absence of the Greenhouse Challenge; (b) the effect of corporate environmental management systems; or (c) the effect of State and Territory greenhouse programmes (National Audit Office, n 33, pp 43, 70).
44. Sullivan R and Ormerod R, "The Australian Greenhouse Challenge: Lessons Learned and Future Directions for Climate Policy", in J Albrecht (ed), Instruments for Climate Policy (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002) pp 184-187.
45. Sullivan R and Sullivan J, "Environmental Management Systems and their Influence on Corporate Responses to Climate Change", in Begg K, Van der Woerd F and Levy D (eds), The Business of Climate Change: Corporate Responses to Kyoto (Greenleaf Publishing, 2005) p 122.
46. Sullivan and Sullivan, n 40; Allen Consulting Group, Meeting the Kyoto Target: Impact on Regional Australia. Report by the Allen Consulting Group for the Minerals Council of Australia (Allen Consulting Group, 2000).
47. Sullivan, n 1, p 115.
48. Sullivan, n 1, pp 115-117.
49. Beresford R and Waller S, "The Kyoto Protocol: Threats and Opportunities" (2000) 40(1) The APPEA Journal 645 at 648-651;
50. Parker C, The Open Corporation: Effective Self-Regulation and Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2002) p 82.
51. Rex L, "Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Energy Efficiency in the Australian Plastics and Chemicals Industries" (Vol 2, Proceedings of the 15th International Clean Air and Environment Conference Sydney, Australia, 27-30 November 2000).
52. Sullivan, n 1, pp 83-84, 115-117.
53. Now part of the NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability at http://www.deus.nsw.gov (viewed 9 January 2006).
54. Cooper D, Duncan R, Precious B, Williamson A and Workum N, "Creating Demand for Energy Efficiency in Australian Industry" (SEDA, Sydney, 1999), 13 pp (copy on file with the author).
55. Sullivan and Sullivan, n 40, p 125.
56. Sullivan, n 1, pp 120-122.
57. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 14, pp 42-43.
58. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 14, p 44.
59. Sullivan R, Sullivan J, Kolominskas C and Ormerod R, "Where are the Engineers?" (2000) 1(2) The Environmental Engineer 23 at 23-24.
60. Beresford and Waller, n 44; Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, Submission on Greenhouse Plus: Industry Consultation Discussion Paper (Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, 2005).
61. Sullivan, n 1, p 124.
62. Australia, Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee, n 32.
63. Commonwealth of Australia, n 17.
64. Australia Institute, n 36; Australian Conservation Foundation, n 13;
65. Burritt R, "Application of Effectiveness Analysis", in ten Brink P, Voluntary Environmental Agreements: Process, Practice and Future Use (Greenleaf, 2002).
66. Australia, Senate Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee, n 32, p 367.
67. Voluntary programmes do tend to achieve the targets set for themselves, although this, of itself, may not be a particularly important finding as firms frequently play a key part in the negotiations that define these targets;
68. Thalman P and Baranzini A, "An Overview of the Economics of Voluntary Approaches in Climate Policies", in Baranzini A and Thalman P (eds), Voluntary Approaches in Climate Policy (Edward Elgar Press, 2004) p 23;
69. Sullivan, n 1.
70. An analysis - using game theory and economic models of regulation - of the regulatory gains (pre-empting regulation, influencing the shape of regulation, and deflecting the enforcement of existing regulation) that may accrue to the participants in voluntary programmes is presented in Lyon T and Maxwell J, Corporate Environmentalism and Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
71. This is one part of the Australian government's Climate Change Strategy, for which the policy framework is contained in the 2004-2005 budget papers. See, Department of Environment and Heritage, Budget 2004-2005 (Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra, 2004) and the Energy White Paper in: Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, n 8.
72. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Plus: Programme Framework 2005 (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2005) p 1.
73. Greenhouse Challenge Plus will also provide the framework for Greenhouse Friendly certification (a voluntary initiative that provides Australian businesses with the opportunity to market "greenhouse-neutral" products or services) and the Generator Efficiency Standards programme (which aims to aim to achieve best practice in the efficiency of electricity generation).
74. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 17.
75. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, pp 11-12, 18-20.
76. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 3.
77. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 6.
78. Australian Greenhouse Office, Greenhouse Challenge Plus: An Australian Government-Industry Partnership to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Improve Energy Efficiency (Australian Greenhouse Office, 2005).
79. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 68. The Australian Greenhouse Office has stated that the mandatory requirements to join the Greenhouse Challenge Plus mean that the government's target of 1000 Greenhouse Challenge members by 2005 is no longer a useful target or indicator of progress, see: Australian Greenhouse Office, n 5, p 27.
80. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, pp 14, 16.
81. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 14.
82. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 6
83. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 6.
84. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 6.
85. Australian Greenhouse Office, Industry-Government Greenhouse Partnership Committee at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/challenge/about/iggpcommittee.html (viewed 10 January 2006).
86. Australian Greenhouse Office, n 62, p 4.
87. Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, n 53.
88. Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, n 53.
89. the list provided in the "Introduction", in ten Brink, n 57, pp 259-60.
90. Krarup and Ramesohl, n 37, p 39.
91. Thalman and Baranzini, n 59, p 23.
92. Thalman and Baranzini, n 59, p 23.
93. Krarup and Ramesohl, n 37, p 41;
94. Sullivan and Ormerod, n 39.
95. As noted by Glachant: "Concerning CO2 reduction agreements in high energy consuming industries, we can be more suspicious about the cost efficiency of voluntary approaches given the weight of energy cost in total production costs, firms have paid much more attention to energy saving activities for a long time. It can be assumed that the nature and cost of energy saving techniques are well known by each firm" in Glachant M, "The Cost Efficiency of Voluntary Agreements for Regulation Industrial Pollution: A Coasean Approach", in Carraro C and Leveque F, Voluntary Approaches in Environmental Policy (Kluwer Academic, 1999) p 88.
96. the discussion in Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, n 8, s 8, which acknowledges that most developments in low emission technology will occur overseas, even though the Australian government has established a A$500 million Low-Emission Technology Development Fund to support industry-led initiatives to demonstrate such technologies.
97. Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, n 8, s 3.
98. Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, n 8, s 6.
99. Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, n 8, s 6.
100. Commonwealth of Australia, Energy Taskforce, n 8, s 1.
101. Sullivan and Ormerod, n 39.
102. As noted by Segerson and Roti Jones, the absence of a backdrop of stronger regulatory threats is likely to minimise the effectiveness of any voluntary policy measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions
103. Segerson K and Roti Jones K, "Do Voluntary Approaches to Climate Change Lead to Efficient Environmental Protection?" in Baranzini and Thalman (eds), n 59).