• If you’re involved in a major development project, you may need to report your estimated operating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  • Major developments may contribute to increased GHG emissions in the atmosphere.
  • Use the guides to understand what your project might contribute to GHG emissions.

If you're involved in a major development project, it's important to understand:

  • what greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are
  • the government's commitment to addressing climate change, and
  • what you need to report for your development.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Things we do every day increase greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere. Types of GHG include:

  • carbon dioxide (CO2)
  • methane (CH4)
  • nitrous oxide (N2O)
  • sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), and
  • some fluorocarbons (FCs).

Even though there are many types of GHGs, the most common type is CO2 (which makes up 80% of the world's GHGs). Burning certain materials releases CO2, like:

  • fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil)
  • waste
  • wood, and
  • other biological materials.

Since 2020, the ACT has 100% renewable electricity supply, so most GHG emissions in the ACT now comes from fossil fuel gas, petrol and diesel use. The ACT Government has announced that the transition from ‘natural gas’ in the ACT will be through electrification. From 8 December 2023, a new regulation will prevent new connections to the gas network in the majority of circumstances. For more information on the incoming regulation visit the Everyday Climate Choices website.

The Government's commitment

The ACT Government is committed to addressing climate change. The ACT has already transitioned to 100% renewable electricity and has legislated interim and net zero by 2045 targets . But we can do more to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and how much we rely on non-renewable energy like fossil fuel gas and diesel.

To help us with this change, the government wants to raise awareness of the impact that major developments have on the climate. Major developments can rely heavily on using gas and sometimes diesel in their operations.

To understand the impacts, the government has introduced a new regulation. Major developments must collect data and report on their projected operating greenhouse gas emissions.

The new regulation helps action the ACT Climate Change Strategy 2019-25. It also supports the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement of the 10th Legislative Assembly.

Legislation

The Planning Act 2023 asks some major developments to report their projected operating GHG emissions in the development application (DA) process. Developments with estimated operating GHG emissions over 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide (TCO2) per year must include in their DA:

  • Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and
  • a GHG Emissions Statement. If you're a developer, you can still report their expected operating emissions even if a project comes under these limits. You can do this through the DA process to promote low to zero emissions development.

Affected developments

The thresholds are set to capture the ACT's largest, most GHG-intensive developments. The following types of projects aren't likely to reach reporting thresholds:

  • people who are building or renovating their own home
  • small to medium-sized housing estate developers, or
  • commercial office block developers.

The major developments that’ll most likely need to report are those using:

  • significant gas-fuelled space heating or water heating
  • gas or diesel-fuelled industrial processes
  • high fuel (diesel) in plant and machinery on-site, and
  • industrial processes that directly release other GHG such as methane.

Complete a GHG emissions statement

A Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Statement is a form that includes your development's expected GHG. Submitting a GHG statement isn’t used to offset any other DA requirements. The statement is used to inform climate change policy and stored under Privacy Policies. Calculating GHG emissions

Use the following to complete a GHG Emissions Statement:

All electricity use (Scope 2) is zero emissions. Most developments also only need to estimate how much gas they will use in a year. Industrial developments may need to estimate other GHG sources like onsite diesel and direct release of methane.

Rules of thumb

The guide below helps to estimate your GHG emissions for a commercial building with gas space heating:

  • 8-9 kg CO2 per m2 per year (8.5 x GFA/1000 = commercial gas TCO2).

GHG from operating the development includes:

  • direct GHG emissions released each year
  • attributed to the development's operations
  • within the development's site boundary, and
  • comes from sources the developer owns/controls.

These may or may not represent the operations of the whole site or future changes to the site.

While scope 3 emissions are not required, it’s you should provide this information in the Emissions Statement. You may want to include material source of emissions if you have the information available, including GHG emissions from:

  • using fuel in vehicles to and from the site
  • fuel in private vehicles
  • electricity supplied
  • goods and services supplied, and
  • constructing your development.

Environmental impact assessments

If your development meets certain criteria, it may need an Environmental Impact Assessment.

If you’ve provided a detailed estimate of GHG emissions as part of an EIS you don’t need to duplicate this information in the form. Your detailed estimate will be sufficient.

Resources