COAG approves recommendations to raise standards for existing homes

Last Friday, the COAG Energy Council met and discussed the recommendations from Renew and 36 other consumer organisations to implement measures to substantially improve the energy efficiency of millions of existing homes. We are happy to announce that COAG has integrated many of our suggestions into their updated Trajectory for Low Energy Existing Buildings.

“This is a fantastic next step along the process to seeing strong and comprehensive policy measures, with national oversight, put in place to lift the energy performance of existing housing across the country,” said Renew CEO Donna Luckman.

“The path is now clear for State Governments and jurisdictional stakeholders to develop and implement strong, coherent policy reform in this space. 2020 will be a big year for energy performance policy for existing housing in Australia,” she added.

The updates to the Trajectory approved by COAG include:

• Developing information, training and energy rating tools for households and businesses to enable greater understanding of energy efficiency options and applications.
• Developing and expanding targeted building policies, including disclosure of energy performance, minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties, renovations and refurbishments, improving heating, ventilation and cooling, and energy productivity in government operations.
• Identifying and developing supporting measures, including specific measures for strata titled buildings, financial initiatives, appliance standards and labelling, specific measures for vulnerable households, a national dataset and collection process for existing homes, and other targeted initiatives.

We are thrilled with this progress and our ability to advocate on behalf of consumers to ensure a safe and healthy future for Australian housing. In the future, we hope to see all of our recommendations (outlined in our submission to the Energy ministers) implemented.