Approximately 70% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are directly or indirectly contributed by infrastructure, through embodied, operational, and enabled emissions from other sectors (ClimateWorks, 2020).
The projected population increase in Victoria will place more demands on existing infrastructure and necessitate new infrastructure: the greenhouse gas emissions from this must be managed. ATSE’s submission to this consultation on Victoria’s 30-year Infrastructure Strategy engages with the theme of mitigating and adapting to climate change, and puts forward the following recommendations for the next iteration of the Strategy:
Recommendation 1: Add an objective to the Strategy to “decarbonise infrastructure by accounting and budgeting for greenhouse gas emissions from infrastructure”.
Recommendation 2: Collaborate with national and state infrastructure bodies to develop a nationally consistent framework for greenhouse gas accounting in infrastructure.
Recommendation 3: Add recommendations to the Strategy to measure and publicly report estimated carbon emissions of project options and projects throughout the lifecycle of projects; measure, manage and report carbon emissions at an infrastructure portfolio level; and embed decarbonisation into infrastructure procurement and contracts.
Recommendation 4: Embed circular economy principles into the Strategy.
