Australia's Armed Forces Pledge to Cut Emissions

ENS) – The Commonwealth’s largest department, biggest user of energy, and major emitter of greenhouse gases, The Department of Defence, has joined the Greenhouse Challenge, a voluntary government program to limit emissions.

The agreement was signed Thursday in a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial, by Australian Greenhouse Office chief executive, Gwen Andrews, Secretary of the Department of Defence, Dr. Allan Hawke, and Chief of the Defence Force Staff, Admiral Chris Barrie.

The Department of Defence joins the growing numbers of Australia’s industry groups that have taken up the Challenge, a voluntary initiative between the Commonwealth and industry to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Andrews said the Department of Defence has agreed to cut greenhouse emissions from its operations all over Australia by 120,000 tons (132,000 tons) a year by 2004.

This represents a reduction of more than 13 percent below 1999-2000 emissions levels.

Until now most Challenge members have come from Australian industry, but the Australian Greenhouse Office has been keen to increase the level of commitment to abate greenhouse emissions from Commonwealth government agencies.

One of the main opportunities for abatement will come through raising the awareness of greenhouse within the Department’s massive workforce, which at nearly 90,000 people, is larger than the population of many Australian towns.

“We are particularly impressed by the speed Defence has demonstrated in signing up to the Challenge,” said Andrews. “Defence is an enormous organisation, with a huge emissions inventory from a wide range of sources amounting to nearly 900,000 tonnes (990,000 tons) per year of carbon dioxide equivalent.”

The Department of Defence did not place an announcement of its new commitment on its public Web site.

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