The Department recently published the 2015-2016 priority list. Many of the proposed project activities concern energy efficiency or land-based activities.
Energy efficiency activities on the priority list include improved boiler energy efficiency, improvements to pumping systems in industrial and commercial settings, air conditioner upgrades, and a proposed sampling method for energy efficiency projects which operate over a number of sites which would allow measurement to occur at a representative sample of sites taken from the broader population of sites under the project. A method covering commercial buildings, which are not covered by the National Australian Built Environment Rating Scheme (NABERS), such as schools, hospitals, aged care facilities, retirement villages and public buildings such as law courts, libraries and museums, is also proposed.
For the land sector, proposed activities include reducing emissions from sheep production through improved productivity, and reducing emissions from fertilizer use in sugar cane production through improved productivity. An improved method for savannah fire management is proposed, which in addition to the carbon sequestration for the ‘debris pool’ discussed above, would account for sequestration from biomass and soil carbon pools.
Other proposed methods include:
- an industrial process efficiency method to cover activities which reduce scope 1 emissions of industrial process gas, such as the installation of flue gas scrubbers
- an extension of the existing land and sea transport method, to cover emissions reductions which occur when freight is moved by rail instead of road
- a ‘waste to energy’ method to credit emissions reductions from turning waste gas into an energy source, crediting both the reductions in waste-related emissions and the displacement of emissions from more emissions-intensive energy sources.