Queensland Continues to Become a Leader in Carbon Reduction

According to the Council of Climate Change report, the state of Queensland leads the annual carbon emission decrease rankings in Australia. An impressive total of 15 million tons of carbon dioxide has been saved since 2007 because of the state’s actions towards sustainability.

This phenomenal decrease of Queensland is primarily because of the use of renewable energy in the state as well as the $47.7 million Energy Conservation Demand Management Program, which aimed to reduce energy demands during peak hours.

The use of solarpower in Queensland has also doubled in just 15 months, 3 years earlier than expected, thanks to the generous government incentives and schemes, including the most generous premium feed in tariff in the country.

While Qld has had the biggest reductions in recent times there is still a long way to go; Tasmania generates a remarkable 86 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, Queensland only 8 per cent.This seems a poor result, until you consider that NSW’s figures are only 6%, Western Australia 5% and Victoria 3.9%, so Queensland is in fact the 2nd highest user of renewable energy in the country.

Although Qld lags far behind Tasmania currently, its climate conditions and geography are very favourable for the use of solar power, and several large scale projects are under development. So in a few years we will likely have seen a huge surge in the renewable energy industry in the state.

There are additional challenges to be overcome in Queensland due its relatively huge land mass and diverse population. Of some concern is how far the planned large scale solar power plants are from highly populated areas, which then requires infrastructure to transport it and the resulting energy loss along the way. For this reason it is more logical to encourage smaller scale projects close to urban areas, as well as the widespread installation of home rooftop solar panels for decentralised energy production.

The government of Queensland knows that there are still a lot of things that need to be accomplished and can be done to make the state more sustainable and their efforts are directly wholeheartedly in that direction. They have pledged to continue the existing government programs and incentives in a continuing attempt to bridge the cost of renewables, and make clean energy more financially viable for residents and businesses then traditional coal produced power.

Overall Australia produces 5% of its energy from renewable sources currently, and aims to increase to 20% by the year 2020. The rivalry between the state governments to compete for who will become the country’s greenest and most sustainable region will help to make this ambitious target a reality.