South Australia acts to kickstart economy with smart energy investments 06 November 2020
Energy experts have welcomed the South Australian Government's announcement that it will invest $60 million to improve the energy efficiency of government buildings, which will create hundreds of jobs while cutting both carbon emissions and the government’s energy bills.
“The South Australian Government is again demonstrating its bona fides as a leader on energy not just in Australia, but around the world. Their investment of $60 million to upgrade hospitals and other public buildings is pretty much the smartest action they could take to kickstart their economy right now. It will create hundreds of jobs for tradies and engineers while saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Luke Menzel, CEO of the Energy Efficiency Council.
Earlier this year the International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency called on governments around the world to take actions like this to stimulate their economies. Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, called energy efficiency a “job-creation machine”, and the IMF and IEA's report found that investing in energy efficiency created far more jobs than any other from of energy stimulus; see below and https://www.iea.org/reports/sustainable-recovery
“This is about as smart as stimulus gets. Premier Marshall and Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan are showing that they want to get the maximum value from their stimulus spend. They’re putting jobs front and centre, and doing it in a way that will cut taxpayers’ energy bills for decades to come,” said Luke Menzel.
“South Australia is showing that our energy system can be clean, reliable and, critically, affordable, with balanced investments in upgrading the grid and improving energy efficiency. We urge other governments to follow their lead,” said Luke Menzel.
Source: https://www.iea.org/reports/sustainable-recovery/evaluation-of-possible-recovery-measures#abstract
Media contact
Rob Murray-Leach, Head of Policy, Energy Efficiency Council: 0414 065 556