Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt and the City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, today announced a $30 million program of works which will deliver lower emissions and lower power bills for the city by $1 million per year. The program is financed by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and will accelerate the city's sustainability plans to achieve zero net emissions by 2020. Combined with the installation of additional rooftop solar, the Council will use the funds to upgrade commercial buildings, through the establishment of the Sustainable Melbourne Fund. The city is competing with Adelaide another Australian city with ambitious plans to become the world’s first carbon neutral city by cutting its emissions output to zero. Dubbed the Carbon Neutral Adelaide initiative it is part of the state government’s climate change strategy, which includes an overall goal of cutting emissions by 60 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050. "I am delighted the Australian Government, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, is investing in energy efficiency,”Hunt said. The upgraded street lights will use 56 per cent less power than existing lights. This will slash energy bills for the City of Melbourne by $1.1 million a year and reduce emissions by 110,000 tonnes over the next decade. Moreover, the City of Melbourne will source 25 per cent of the municipality’s electricity from renewables by 2018. The $30 million program of works will go toward a range of projects including $10 million for the Sustainable Melbourne Fund (SMF) to finance Environmental Upgrade Agreements (EUA) which have been very successful in Sydney, . Another $800,000 will be used to complete the installation of 300kw of rooftop solar panels on council and community facilities such as the Carlton Baths and Carlton Resource Centre. Chair of the City of Melbourne’s Environment Portfolio, Cr Arron Wood said a further $4.4 million will be spent on other sustainability initiatives which are based on a five year Council emission reduction plan. He said the installation of solar panels will be equivalent to planting more than 13,300 trees. "LLike households across Australia, we understand the savings that can be generated from switching to energy efficient lights and installing solar,”Wood said.
