Fact sheet: Home Insulation Program: emissions reductions
The Home Insulation Program was designed primarily to promote employment and stimulate the Australian economy in response to the global financial crisis, but additional benefits of the program included encouraging immediate energy savings and lowering household energy bills.
It has also been successful in bringing forward significant quantities of emissions reductions that would otherwise not have occurred.
Projected emissions reductions
Emissions reductions from the Home Insulation Program were calculated as part of the annual process undertaken by the Department to project Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Figure 1: Emissions reductions from the Home Insulation Program, 2008 to 2020
Text alternative for Figure 1
Emissions reductions from the program peak at 2.4 Mt CO2-e in 2011, coinciding with the first full year of benefits to the 1.2 million homes insulated. Abatement declines over time for a number of reasons discussed below.
In the period to 2015, the program generates more than 10 Mt CO2-e of abatement. Total cumulative abatement from the program is more than 14 Mt CO2-e. This is the result of around 20,000 GWhs of electricity savings and 25 PJ of natural gas savings.
Changes since the previous estimate
The abatement estimate included in Australia’s emissions projections 2010 is the first time an estimate for the Home Insulation Program has been provided separately. Abatement has previously been published for the Energy Efficient Homes Package which also included the Solar Hot Water Rebate.
The 2010 Intergenerational Report published in January 2010 reported that in 2020, 3 Mt CO2-e were expected to be reduced on account of the Energy Efficient Homes Package. Of this, 2.5 Mt CO2-e was directly attributed to the Home Insulation Package.
A number of improvements to the abatement estimation methodology have been made since this time:
- The number of homes insulated under the program has been adjusted to reflect the 1.2 million homes insulated by the end of the program, not the 1.9 million expected in January 2010 (-0.9 Mt CO2-e).
- The estimate of how many homes would have been insulated in each year without the program has been improved and incorporated (-1.0 Mt CO2-e). This is a revised estimate of how many homes are additional to the business as usual number.
- The estimate of energy savings (-0.5 Mt CO2-e) has been improved to:
- take into account household behaviour change in response to having insulation installed; and
- more accurately identify interactions with other Government programs such as energy efficiency and the Renewable Energy Target.
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The current estimate of emissions reductions as a result of the Home Insulation Program on an annual basis is as follows:
| |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
| Mt CO2-e |
1.9 |
2.4 |
2.3 |
2.1 |
1.9 |
1.5 |
1.1 |
0.7 |
0.3 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
|---|
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Fact sheet: Home Insulation Program: emissions reductions (PDF 267 KB)