Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and relates to the confusion and misinformation about the impact of the clean energy legislation on local government landfill operations. Could the minister clarify which programs and strategies are available for local government authorities to minimise the potential emissions impacts?

Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for New England for his question, because the government's clean energy future plan—of course, developed in discussion with the member for New England—does provide local councils significant economic opportunities to reduce methane emissions from their landfill waste and to boost their revenue.

Reducing methane emissions, which is a powerful greenhouse gas, from council landfills can be achieved by using existing and well-known technologies that have been in place for some time. Essentially, what is involved is the covering of the landfill and the capturing of the methane as the waste decomposes. The captured methane can be flared off or burnt off or used to generate electricity, which can be used to power council facilities and be sold into the electricity grid. So, the destruction of methane from existing waste from landfill facilities can also create revenue under the government's Carbon Farming Initiative. On top of that, if landfill operators use the methane to generate electricity they may be eligible for renewable energy certificates under the renewable energy target legislation.

There are already 59 landfill gas generators registered and operating in Australia. In fact, one of them is within one of my own local government areas in Newcastle, at the Summerhill waste facility—and I am very familiar with it. Using opportunities of this nature might also have the effect of eliminating or significantly reducing any liability for landfills under the carbon price mechanism. The facts of the matter are that the majority of local council landfills in Australia will have no liability under the carbon price. It is only the larger landfills that will be obliged to pay the carbon price for their methane emissions and even then their emissions will not create any liability during the financial year 2012-13. By using the opportunities that I have been pointing to to capture methane, the liability in the future for those large landfills could be significantly offset. In fact, the government estimates that the Carbon Farming Initiative income will outweigh the carbon liability for those large landfills all the way through to 2020. So there are significant opportunities, and I noted yesterday that the Tamworth Regional Council indicated it intends taking them up in the member for New England's electorate. They will have good environmental outcomes and they represent important economic benefits that are potentially there for local governments as well.