A 12-week round of industry and community consultation on the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) greenhouse gas emissions assessment guidance has officially opened.
Earlier in the year, the EPA released a revised assessment guidelines on greenhouse gas emissions, however, it was clear that the industry held some uncertainty on the technical aspects and the practical implementation of the guidelines – particularly with regards to offsets. These guidelines were quickly withdrawn.
The EPA recognised that this was the case and made clear that they planned to undertake further consultation with industry and stakeholders to ensure the guidelines could be practically implemented and are fully complementary to Commonwealth regulation.
EPA Chair, Dr Tom Hatton, said the EPA is open to all views during the consultation and welcomes all submissions.
“We want to ensure the greenhouse gas guidance we use for our assessment of significant proposals in Western Australia is robust and provides an effective framework within which the EPA will consider the greenhouse gas emissions of future proposals,” he said.
Submissions will be reviewed and published online following the consultation period.
The EPA will consider all submissions and prepare new greenhouse gas assessment guidelines which it intends to release later this year.
“During the development of the new guidelines the EPA remains mindful of any outcomes from discussions on greenhouse gas emissions at state and Commonwealth levels, and that any changes will potentially influence the EPA’s consideration of its assessment guidelines,” Dr Hatton confirmed.
Submissions will close on 2 September 2019.
For more information on the consultation process visit the EPA website at www.epa.wa.gov.au.
Submissions can be made at: https://consultation.epa.wa.gov.au/
A background paper on the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Guidance is available here.
