EAGA has played a key role in advocating for changes to the Local Government Act that have enabled councils to offer Environmental Upgrade Agreements for businesses across Victoria. When the relevant legislative amendments were announced in mid 2015, Minster D’Ambrosio made specific reference to research undertaken by EAGA and Western Alliance for Greenhouse Action that quantified the potential direct economic benefits that could be unlocked by EUA finance within each municipality in Victoria. The report estimated Victoria’s regions could benefit from an additional $4.5B in capital investment and over 18,000 jobs if the finance is enabled.
EUA Finance for the Regions Summary Report 2013 12 02 (PDF, 705 KB)
In 2014, this analysis was taken a step further to estimate the ongoing financial savings and potential emission reductions available to Victorian businesses. This ‘addendum’ report also makes a number of recommendations to the Local Government sector on how scale can be captured in administering an EUA scheme.
EUA Finance for the Regions ADDENDUM 2014 09 16 (PDF, 529 KB)
EAGA continues to play a leadership role in the sector on extending EUA’s to the residential sector, and has been instrumental in changes to the Local Government Act 2019 that enable home owners to access rates based finance. These changes also permit EUA fiance to be used for adaptation purposes.