Australia firms eye energy savings to cut carbon costs

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian businesses plan to slash energy consumption and step up efficiency to hold down the expenses of greenhouse gas reduction programs, a survey of chief executives of top 200 firms by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed.

The survey showed 93 percent of the chief executives planned to use energy more efficiently to lessen the costs of greenhouse gas emissions when Australia introduces a cap-and-trade emissions trading scheme (ETS) in mid-2010.

Respondent CEOs were keen to identify the low-hanging fruit, in terms of energy efficiency, within their businesses, Andrew Petersen, the firm’s sustainability and climate change partner in Australia, said on Tuesday.

“It could be technology switching or fuel switching, which is fairly easy and cost effective to undertake,” Petersen said.

The PWC survey found that more than 80 percent of the CEOs surveyed planned changes to their businesses in the next 12 months to address climate change issues.

“They’re moving on in building the next stage of their business plan with effective risk management on carbon but making it cost effective,” he said.

The worsening of the global economic crisis in recent months has made businesses more concerned about the costs associated with reducing emissions, Petersen said.

“There’s been a very key focus about what this cost is going to mean to the business and perhaps what other projects will have to be foregone to start building programs around carbon risks.”

Just 27 percent of survey respondents feared that climate change was a threat to the growth of their businesses.

Respondents were more concerned about how to meet their compliance obligations in reporting greenhouse gas emissions and also the price of emissions, Petersen said.

Eighty-seven percent of respondents regarded a clear and consistent government policy framework as being important in adapting businesses to climate change.