The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has welcomed the announcement in this week’s budget that the country’s federal government will allocate A$3.3m over the next four years on increasing current energy efficiency requirements.

“We’ve advocated changes to the Building Code of Australia for some time, and welcome the Australian Government’s decision to increase the stringency of energy efficiency requirements for all classes of commercial buildings in the Building Code of Australia from 2010,” said Romilly Madew, the organisation’s chief executive.

The budget also commits the Australian Government to spend $5.3 million over four years to accelerate and expand a national regime for the mandatory disclosure of commercial building energy efficiency to improve awareness of building energy performance.

“Australia’s commercial and residential buildings are responsible for 23% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ms Madew.

“We must take swift and decisive action to ensure we address climate change. Delivering higher energy efficiency standards in both new and existing buildings is a positive step forward to reduce Australia’s carbon footprint.”

Sam Bond

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