The debate over banning gas has heated up again in New South Wales after the city of Sydney voted to begin the process of electrifying new homes and some businesses.
Eight out of 10 councillors voted on Monday night to investigate how to change the council’s local planning rules to ban new gas connections.
The move has been welcomed by health professionals and climate change organisations, despite concerns council bans are unenforceable and subject to challenge in the courts. Meanwhile, critics say banning gas will lead to higher energy bills and hurt businesses.
The city of Sydney, which encompasses inner-city suburbs and the CBD, is following Waverley and Parramatta councils in NSW and the Victorian and ACT governments, which have all recently passed laws to ban gas in new developments.
How will it work?
The city of Sydney has not banned gas just yet, but it has taken the first steps towards doing so.
Councillors voted to ask staff to investigate how to amend the council’s planning controls to require all new residential developments to be completely electric.
The gas ban would also apply to commercial developments not captured by the council’s new net zero planning controls, which require development applications for new office buildings, hotels, shopping centres and major redevelopments of existing buildings to comply with minimum energy ratings from January 2023 and achieve net zero energy use from 2026.
The Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, said council staff would look into other options to reduce gas use as part of their commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
What are the benefits?
Proponents of electrification point to the environmental and health benefits of removing gas from homes.
The motion passed by the city of Sydney on Monday says that “gas is highly toxic to human health” and cited research that found that gas cooktops are associated with childhood asthma and can be linked to some types of cancer.
Analysis commissioned by 350 Australia found that the city of Sydney’s decision could reduce carbon emissions across the council’s area by 1.7m tonnes over the next 40 years.
However, that analysis also found emissions would increase in the first two years before falling “due to the emissions intensity of the electricity grid, which still relies on a significant amount of fossil-fuel generated electricity”.
The report found that each new household in the local government area would save an average of $430 a year on their energy bills, or $5,500 in today’s dollars over a 40-year period.
The city of Sydney has also referred to separate research by the Climate Council that found homes in Sydney could save $924 a year if they switched from gas to electric appliances.
Electric induction cooktops are also far more energy efficient than gas cooktops, with gas being around 30% efficient and induction up to 90% efficient. Much larger energy savings can be made with heat pump heating and hot water; for example, heat pumps can warm spaces at 600% efficiency, while gas heaters can be as low as 50% efficient.
What are the drawbacks?
Associate Prof Andrew Grant from the University of Sydney’s business school is sceptical that electrification will save people money and says it is not the council’s responsibility to “force people to choose the green option”.
New businesses in the city would be forced to go without gas if the planning controls go ahead, meaning commercial kitchens in the city would not be allowed to use gas stoves.
Business Sydney’s executive director, Paul Nicolaou, says businesses need to be supported to transition to clean energy and that a ban on gas should be a statewide policy rather than being enforced “council by council”.
“We must ensure businesses in the CBD that want to transition off gas have access to meaningful government incentives,” he says.
“At the same time, businesses in the CBD that need gas should not be punished for continuing to use it.”
Will gas be banned in all new homes across NSW?
Not any time soon.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has told reporters that he uses an electric cooktop in his own home. But he has repeatedly ruled out banning new gas connections, saying the state already has enough energy supply issues.
Minns has knocked back Moore’s calls to enact a statewide ban on gas in new developments.
He doubled down on Wednesday, saying he had made his position clear and that the city of Sydney’s investigation into banning gas was “not enforceable”.
Minns said about 7% of emissions in NSW came from the production of gas, compared with 18% in Victoria.
“We just rely far less on gas. We rely a lot more on coal,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re so heavily invested in renewable energy in the state, so that we can replace coal with renewable energy.
What’s happening in Victoria?
In July, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced gas connections would be banned in new homes and government buildings built across the state.
Public buildings such as schools and hospitals and residential properties that require planning permits will only be allowed connections to all-electric networks from 1 January 2024.
The government, which has the support of environmental groups and the property and construction sectors, has said the change will save households up to $1,000 a year on energy bills and reduce emissions.
But the opposition has warned the policy could increase household energy bills by raising demand for electricity.
