For well over a year now Victorians have been bombarded with media articles about climate change and the importance of cutting our greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climate change.

Yet, with almost ¾ of 2008 gone, Victoria’s greenhouse emissions are 1.8% higher than the same time last year according to the Climate Group, an organisation which tracks weekly emissions in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Over the same period, Victoria’s population has actually shrunk slightly, based on ABS data just released.

So what’s happening here? You’d be hard pressed to go to a party today and not find someone talking about their concern about climate change. Yet our greenhouse gas pollution continues to go up – both in absolute terms and on a per capita basis.

According to Bruce Rowse of CarbonetiX, “More homes are getting larger TVs and airconditioning, but even so residential energy use accounts for only 18% of Victoria’s total greenhouse emissions. I doubt very much that residential energy use has increased by 10% in the last twelve months, so the increase has to have come from other areas, including businesses.”

“Our work in the corporate sector shows there may be a group of passionate individuals keen to help their organisation cut its greenhouse emissions, and often CEO commitment too. But we often get asked ‘Please show us what to do,’ because whilst there is concern about climate change, people don’t know what to do, or how to do it. This is a shame, because most companies can reduce their energy use – and greenhouse emissions by 5% to 10% without much effort.”

“For me its very frustrating to see our emissions continue to increase, because for almost any organisation its both easy and financially sensible to cut energy use – and greenhouse emissions. For example, just changing thermostat settings can often cut office energy consumption by 5%.”

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Bruce Rowse - (03) 9015 8344