NGER and Local Government

(QG_Sup 04)

Summary

A brief guide to how the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act (NGER) applies to local government in Australia.

Applies to

Local Governments planning for NGER compliance.

NGER background

The Federal Government's NGER legislation will require mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions by organisations that emit 25,000 t CO2e (25 kt) or more annually from any individual facility or 50,000 t CO2e (50 kt) annually from the entire entity.  There are equivalent thresholds based on consumption and production of energy but these are unlikely to affect local government.  In its present form, the Act applies to constitutional corporations but this will most likely soon be expanded to include local councils.

Waste to landfill is the determining factor for local government

For local government, NGER liability mostly comes down to the number of landfill sites, the amount of direct (Scope 1) emissions from each, and determination of who has financial and/or operational control of the landfill facilities.

None of the 150 councils Planet  Fooprint tracks has individual facilities, other than landfills, that come close to the 25 kt facility limit for NGER. For example, of the 89 aquatic centres tracked by Planet Footprint, the largest, with over 600,000 patrons per year has annual emissions of just 4 kt; less than 20% of the NGER threshold.

Very few councils have combined corporate emissions from sources other than waste (namely, Scope 1 and 2 emissions from electricity, gas and fleet fuel) that come anywhere near the strictest 50 kt NGER entity threshhold that will be applicable in 2010-2011, let alone the intermediate 125 kt and 87.5 kt thresholds for the two years before that.

Based on Planet Footprint's research LGAs with a population above 35.000 people are likely to have total emissions from waste to landfill that are above the 25 kt NGER facility threshold.  LGAs with over 70,000 people are likely to have total emissions from waste that are above the 50 kt entity threshhold, thereby triggering NGER entity reporting.

Of course it's up to each council to determine how waste is spread amongst different landfill sites and the extent to which council operates any large facilities.  It's also necessary to consider the 'prescribed distance rule', which includes sites within a certain distance of a reportable facility that accept similar types of waste.

Planet Footprint's Community Footprint - Waste Report tracks tons of waste and lifetime emissions of various types of waste sent to landfill annually.  These figures can inform whether you if you are in the ballpark of the NGER threshold.   If you are at all close to the threshhold  you should to confirm facility details operational control issues with your waste engineer and legal advisers.

If our council is over the NGER facility threshold for our landfill, do we have to report everything else too?

Not necessarily. Facility reporting does not automatically trigger entity reporting. If you have a single landfill facility that is at or above the 25 kt threshold but your combined emissions entity-wide are still under 50 kt then only that facility will be subject to NGER.  

Aside from waste the next largest source of emissions are from wastewater treatment, stationary energy and fleet fuel.  If you are subscribed to Planet Footprint, we can  give you your council's actual figures for stationary energy and fuel emissions. Otherwise you can estimate the rest of your emissions as follows:

• For metropolitan councils (that don't operate water and sewer infrastructure) add 60 t CO2 e for each 1,000 residents in the LGA.
• For country councils (and other councils that operate water and sewer infrastructure) add 380 t CO2 e for each 1,000 residents in the LGA.  This includes allowance for methane emissions from wastewater itself and emissions from the electricity used for running your water and sewer infrastructure.

Examples

1. A very small country council with a population of 10,000 people, operating its own water and sewer, will likely have around 8 kt of emissions from waste.  They will not trigger a facility threshold for NGER.  Non waste emissions will likely be around 4 kt.  With an entity total of 12 kt the council is well below the 50 kt entity threshold for NGER.

2. A regional council with a population of 35,000 people, operating its own water and sewer, will likely have around 25 kt of emissions from waste.  They may well trigger a facility threshold for NGER as they are likely to be the operator of one large landfill site in a major town.  Non waste emissions will likely be around 14 kt.  With an entity total of around 39 kt the council is probably below the 50 kt entity threshold for NGER.

3. An average sized metropolitan council with a population of 100,000 people will likely have around 70 kt of emissions from waste.  It is  very likely to trigger a facility threshold for NGER, subject to issues of operational and financial control.  Non waste emissions will likely be around 7 kt.  With an entity total of about 77 kt the council is well above the 50 kt entity threshold for NGER and could be over  NGERs 2009-2010 financial year reporting threshold of 87.5 kt.

4. A large metropolitan council with a population of 210,000 people will likely have around 150 kt of emissions from waste.  It is  very likely to trigger a facility threshold for NGER, subject to issues of operational and financial control.  Non waste emissions will likely be around 14 kt.  With an entity total of 164 kt the council is well above the 50 kt entity threshold for NGER and is even above NGERs 2008-2009 financial year reporting threshold of 125 kt.

 Action Points

• If your LGA has more than 25,000 people, determine the total waste emissions for landfill facilities that could be deemed to be controlled or owned by your council.
• If you're close to or above 25 kt of emissions, either for an individual landfill or in total landfill emissions, get a clear and continuous understanding of your corresponding entity-wide emissions using a service such as Planet Footprint's Environmental Scorekeeping Service for Local Government as part of your broader environmental performance management.
• Be aware that the Federal Government's rules about entity types and operational and financial control for NGER, could change at short notice.  Other countries, such as the UK, have introduced additional mandatory reporting schemes - to complement emissions trading - that have much lower thresholds than NGER.  It would be prudent to have a verifiable system for collecting and reporting corporate emissions data already in place.

Regardless of mandatory reporting requirements, if you don't have on-demand access to fundamental environmental performance information, such as that provided by Planet Footprint's Environmental Scorekeeping Service for Local Government, then you are missing out on opportunities to improve energy, water and environmental performance and reduce your council's operating costs.

See also

Sources of information for this article include:

• Anonymous statistics from Planet Footprint's Local Government Environmental Scorekeeping database made up of representative data from over 160 subscribed councils.
• Australian Waste Emissions (Parliament House library)
• Greenhouse Update (Blake and Dawson)
• Waste - Fact Sheet (Department of Climate Change)