City of Sydney move to ban gas in new buildings fuels debate

ABC NEWS (Australia)

There's fresh debate over banning gas after the City of Sydney council voted to begin the process of making all new homes and businesses gas free.

Transcript

00:00 It actually doesn't apply to any existing gas connections.

00:05 So no one's being forced or being told to change their current gas appliances.

00:10 This only applies to new builds and renovations that are large enough that you actually have

00:14 to change the gas meter.

00:16 So that doesn't happen that often.

00:18 But it is a fundamental change to the way we think about energy and energy use in Australia,

00:22 isn't it?

00:23 That's right.

00:24 And I think one of the important things about what these governments are doing are signalling

00:27 that they see electrification as the future and really sending that signal to the broader

00:31 community to rethink whether they actually need gas for heating or for cooking.

00:37 There's time to really... and there is time for people to rethink whether they need a

00:41 gas appliance.

00:42 Is it the case though that at this point in time in our energy mix that shifting away

00:48 from gas is actually worse for the environment because of our dependence on coal?

00:54 Well it gets complicated because gas is quite dirty because you have methane emissions at

00:59 the time of extraction.

01:00 Which is one of the most damaging greenhouse gases.

01:02 That's right.

01:03 And a lot of people don't talk about that.

01:05 And then it's the CO2 that happens when you burn the gas.

01:08 But also lots of people and lots of studies have come out talking about the impacts on

01:11 asthma and other people with respiratory conditions.

01:14 So there's a lot of reasons to start thinking about getting away from gas.

01:18 But many proponents who say we should be shifting away from gas also say it's a long game,

01:23 but it's not something that happens immediately.

01:25 That isn't necessarily an argument for making any significant impact on the environment,

01:30 is it?

01:31 Well that's why this also only applies to new builds.

01:34 Because it's relatively a step by step process, really signalling that people need to start

01:39 thinking about it.

01:40 And really for people at home, it's really at the time when you're thinking about replacing

01:44 your oven.

01:45 And most people in NSW don't even have gas.

01:48 It's only about 43%.

01:50 In ACT Victoria it's towards 70%.

01:52 But there'll be a lot of people at home wondering why this is so controversial.

01:55 How does industry feel about this change?

01:58 Definitely that's one of the impacts.

02:01 But still it's a slow process.

02:04 It's not about changing existing appliances, getting out of that.

02:08 It's a signal for the future.

02:09 How do you bring industry on board?

02:11 I think talking about that role, and I think that's where this sort of targeting, by doing

02:16 it slowly, we're preparing industry to make that shift.

02:20 One of the things that I would really encourage governments to do is support more apprenticeships

02:25 in electrification type of support services.

02:28 EVs, battery testing, in terms of installing solar panels and other things like that.

02:33 One of the things we don't want to see is young people getting into the gas industry

02:37 now when we are expecting it to disappear at some point in the future.

02:41 And is that happening?

02:43 Yes.

02:44 Some regions do have special apprenticeship schemes for electrification type of services,

02:50 looking at solar panel installations, battery installations will be happening.

02:55 That's one of the important things that the state government could do to support this

02:58 move.

02:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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