Origin welcomes energy efficiency report

Origin Energy has welcomed the release of the report by the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency.

Origin Executive General Manager, Policy and Sustainability, Carl McCamish said, “For Australia to deliver on its bipartisan target of a 5% emissions reduction on 2000 levels by 2020, we need to use energy more efficiently, we need to develop zero-carbon renewable power technologies, and we need to shift gradually away from our reliance on coal for baseload power.

“A carbon price should be the core policy instrument to meet these goals because it contributes to all three of them, and leaves it to companies and individuals to find the least-cost, most flexible ways to reduce their emissions,” McCamish added.

“Action on energy efficiency and renewable energy are important complementary measures. We need long-term, national policy in these three areas that will bring forward sustainable long-term investment.

“The call in the Task Group paper for national governance of energy efficiency, rather than uncoordinated small-scale state-based action, is very positive. It helps provide the basis for a coordinated national policy of measures built around a carbon price,” he said.