Introduction
This section provides an assessment of the pressures on the environment from human settlement activities in the ACT. The following indicators are assessed:
- ACT’s Population
- HS1: ACT’s ecological footprint
- HS2: Energy consumption and generation
- HS3: Solid waste generation and management
- HS4: Transport
- HS5: Water resources
- HS6: Water consumption
For background information on human settlements see Background: Human Settlements.
The consumption of fuels and the generation of waste reported in this section are also major sources of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the ACT. Information on air quality can be found in Air, and information on and greenhouse gas emissions can be found in Climate Change.
Canberra experienced two extended COVID-19 lockdowns from late March to late May 2020 and from mid-August to mid-October 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has also significantly increased the uptake of working from home arrangements. These will have impacted some of the annual data presented in this section, particularly the ecological footprint, energy consumption, waste generation and transport. Any potential Covid Pandemic impacts are discussed where relevant.
Key findings
Key actions
That the ACT Government:
ACTION 1.
Develop strategies to reduce resource consumption and waste to landfill, and to increase waste recovery rates as part of moving toward a circular economy.
ACTION 2.
Promote and support sustainable consumption at the household level to further decrease the ACT’s ecological footprint.
ACTION 3.
Develop strategies to improve the uptake of public transport and active travel, including increasing cycling participation across gender and age groups.
ACTION 4.
Provide incentives for low-income households to encourage the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles, and to reduce the purchase of diesel powered vehicles.
ACTION 5.
Expand water sensitive urban design across new and existing urban areas, incorporating integrated water cycle management to enable the capture and use of stormwater, and the creation of habitat for ACT’s biodiversity.
Indicator assessments
HS1: ACT’s ecological footprint
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
The ACT’s ecological footprint is over 9 times the size of the land area of the ACT showing that current resource use is unsustainable. Despite this, the ACT has reduced its total ecological footprint by 11% since 2009–10, and the carbon footprint by 41%. Per capita reductions have been higher still with a 30% decrease in the ecological footprint since 2009–10 and a 54% decrease in the carbon footprint.
Households are responsible for 67% of the ACT’s footprint. Decreases in community resource consumption are key to further reducing both the ecological and carbon footprints for the ACT.
HS2: Energy consumption and generation
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
Because of the lack of ACT-only data for other energy sources, this assessment is limited to electricity consumption and generation.
The ACT reached its 100% renewable electricity supply target in 2020. Despite population growth, electricity consumption has remained stable reflecting an ongoing decline in per capita usage.
HS3: Solid waste generation and management
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
There are no apparent trends indicating long-term changes in the total amount of waste generated, recovered or landfilled. The annual resource recovery rate is generally good at around 75% to 80% of the total waste generated, with recovery rates improving in recent years. Municipal solid waste accounts for the highest proportion of waste sent to landfill and its generation appears to be stable despite the annual population increase in the ACT. The lack of comprehensive and consistent waste data, and high annual variations in waste produced, makes it difficult to assess the overall status of waste in the ACT.
HS4: Transport
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
The ACT community maintains a high dependence on cars for transport, with the number of registered vehicles and their usage increasing. Cars were used for around 75% of all trips undertaken in 2022, and 86% of commuting to work. Public transport, cycling and walking only represented 13% of all travel to work in 2022, although public transport use was increasing before COVID-19 restrictions and the uptake of work from home arrangements. The number of diesel-powered vehicles continues to grow in the ACT, accounting for 20% of passenger vehicles in June 2023 compared to just 6% in 2010. This growth is increasing transport impacts on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions. Around 5% of vehicles in the ACT are electric or hybrid and their number is increasing rapidly.
HS5: Water resources
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
The variation in water storage volumes is consistent with a long-term trend in the ACT of extended periods of reduced storage inflows punctuated by years of high rainfall. The ACT’s four reservoirs were holding just 55% of the total ACT storage capacity in June 2020 but very high annual rainfall resulted in full, or close to full, storage capacity for all reservoirs from 2021 to June 2023. However, the long-term trends in storage volumes and inflows show that although recent years have provided above average water resources, the region remains prone to long periods of dry conditions with implications for water resources.
HS6: Water consumption
CONDITION
TREND
DATA QUALITY
Total water consumption in the ACT and Queanbeyan remained fairly consistent during the decade 2013–14 to 2022–23, ranging from around 46,000 to 56,000 megalitres per year, despite increases in the population serviced. Per capita water use has also been fairly consistent, ranging from 66 to 83 kilolitres per person annually. This is far lower than the per capita water use in the early 2000s of around 120 kilolitres per person.
Click the links below to explore the full analysis of conditions and trends for each indicator
Data summaries
Population
- In 2022, the ACT’s population was approximately 457,000.
- The population is projected to grow to around 696,000 people by 2050, an increase of 239,000 people living in the ACT.
- In the ten-year period between 2013 and 2022, the population grew by over 70,000 people, an average annual increase of 7,000 or 1.8% per year.
- Population growth will increase pressures on the ACT’s environment and requires effective sustainability and land use measures to minimise the impacts of such growth.
The ACT’s ecological and carbon footprint
Ecological footprint
- In 2021–22, the total ecological footprint for the ACT was around 2.21 million hectares. This is over nine times the size of the ACT. The current resource use is unsustainable, with consequences for areas of Australia and overseas that provide the resources, goods and services consumed by the ACT community.
- The total ecological footprint has been increasing since 2017–18 and grew by 3% in 2021–22.
- Between 2009–10 and 2021–22, theper capita ecological footprint fell by nearly 30% and the total ecological footprint decreased by nearly 11%.
- The ACT’s per capita ecological footprint was 6% lower than the Australian average in 2021–22.
- Household consumption of goods and services was responsible for 70% of the ecological footprint in 2021–22.
- The 2021–22 ecological footprint was dominated by the pasture required for animal products which accounted for around 74% of the per capita ecological footprint.
- The second highest component of the ecological footprint in 2021–22 was greenhouse gas emissions at around 14% of the per capita ecological footprint.
- Impacts from food expenditure accounted for 53% of the ACT’s total ecological footprint in 2021–22.
Carbon footprint
- The total carbon footprint was approximately 4.65 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) in 2021–22.
- Between 2009–10 and 2021–22, the total carbon footprint for the ACT decreased by 41% and the per capita carbon footprint fell by 54%.
- The ACT’s 2021–22 per capita carbon footprint was 21% lower than the Australian average after being 9% higher in 2009–10.
- The reduction in the ACT’s total and per capita carbon footprint is from the uptake of renewable electricity generation.
Energy
- Data on the ACT’s energy use is not sufficient to enable a comprehensive assessment of energy generation and consumption. This includes a lack of data on ACT-only energy consumption for fuel types other than electricity, and the consumption of energy by sector.
- Electricity demand in the ACT is stable, despite population growth.
- Electricity consumption per capita decreased by 16% between 2012–13 and 2021–22.
- The ACT reached its 100% renewable electricity supply target in 2020.
- In 2021–22, wind farms supplied around 68% of the ACT’s renewable electricity.
- Rooftop solar generation contributes around 7% of renewable electricity and has increased annually, nearly tripling between 2015–16 and 2021–22.
- Natural gas use (data includes Queanbeyan) remained stable between 2012–13 and 2021–22 with little sign of a significant future decrease. This is due to annual increases in gas customers since 2012–13, although the rate of annual increase has fallen since 2020–21. These figures are concerning given the ACT Government target to cease the supply of natural gas by 2045.
Waste (data includes Queanbeyan but excludes material from the Mr Fluffy asbestos disposal)
- On 26 December 2022, a fire caused extensive and irreparable damage to the ACT Materials Recovery Facility. This required alternative recycling arrangements for the ACT including diverting recyclable waste interstate. A replacement facility will be built with better sorting capabilities that will generate higher quality outputs and an increased processing capacity.
- Total waste generation, waste to landfill and resources recovered are highly variable with changes mostly occurring in response to specific activity from the construction and demolition sector, as well as increases in garden waste.
- The annual total waste generated between 2013–14 and 2022–23 ranged from around 844,000 tonnes to 1.21 million tonnes, with total waste levels higher from 2018–19 to 2022–23 than the previous five years.
- Between 2013–14 and 2022–23, waste to landfill ranged from 20% to 37% of the total waste generated.
- For most years, the rate of resources recovered was around 75% to 80% with recovery rates higher from 2018–19 to 2022–23 than the previous five years.
- In 2021–22, nearly 73,800 tonnes were sent to landfill interstate and 71,500 tonnes in 2022–23. This was around 6%–7% of the total waste generated in each year. The interstate disposal of waste is conducted by private businesses within the ACT and this is not controlled by the ACT Government.
- Between 2013–14 and 2022–23, total per capita waste ranged from 1.87 tonnes per person to 2.56 tonnes per person.
- The per capita percentage of resources recovered ranged from 63% to 80%. Per capita resource recovery was also higher from 2018–19 to 2022–23 than for the previous five years.
- Municipal solid waste (including household waste) accounts for the highest proportion of the waste sent to landfill, followed by commercial and industrial waste.
- From 2017–18 to 2022–23, municipal solid waste contributed between 47% and 59% of the total waste sent to landfill.
- The amount of municipal solid waste increased in 2020–21 and 2021–22, before falling again in 2022–23. This increase is likely because of COVID-19 restrictions and working from home arrangements.
- Up to and including 2022–23, the ACT was found to comply with the two National Environment Protection Measures (NEPM) relating to the ACT’s waste including the Movement of Controlled Waste between States and Territories, and the Used Packaging Materials NEPMs.
Transport
Private vehicle use
- The ACT community is highly dependent on cars which were used for 75% of all trips in 2022. Walking accounted for 18% of the total trips taken, public transport was only used for 3% of trips and cycling only 2%.
- Cars were used for over 86% of travel to and from work in 2022, with most commuting by a sole vehicle occupant. Public transport was used for only 7% of travel to work, and cycling and walking 3% each.
- There was a 5% increase in commuting to work by car between 2017 and 2022. Public transport decreased by 1% and cycling 2% over the same period. These changes show the lack of community uptake for public transport and cycling in favour of increased car use.
- The number of registered vehicles in the ACT increased by over 30% from 2010 to 2023. Between 2020 and 2023, registered vehicles increased by more than 20,300, a 7% increase over three years.
- Light commercial vehicles, which include some types of sports utility vehicles, are being increasingly used by the community for non-work purposes. These large vehicles are more damaging to the environment, with increased emissions of air pollutants due to higher fuel usage.
- In 2020, passenger vehicles were responsible for over 80% of the total kilometres travelled, with light commercial vehicles accounting for nearly 16%.
- Modelling of traffic flows have estimated that between 2021 and 2031 the ACT’s morning and afternoon peak hour traffic will see a 13% increase in the number of car trips, a 10% increase in vehicle kilometres travelled and a 19% increase in vehicle hours travelled.
- The number of diesel-powered vehicles continues to grow in the ACT. In 2010, diesel vehicles accounted for 6% of registered passenger vehicles in the ACT. This increased to 20% in June 2023. The rise in diesel vehicles may reflect a consumer choice for larger models such as sports utility vehicles and four-wheel drives.
- In 2023, electric vehicles accounted for less than 2% of the total registered passenger vehicles in the ACT, with hybrid cars accounting for 3%.
- There has been a greater uptake of electric and hybrid passenger vehicles in recent years in the ACT. Between January 2019 and June 2023, electric vehicle registrations increased from 184 to 4,737, and hybrid vehicles from 2,802 to 9,741. Since 2019, electric vehicle numbers have roughly doubled annually and in the first half of 2023 one in five newly registered vehicles were electric.
Public transport and active travel
- Because of COVID-19 restrictions and the significant increase in working from home arrangements, public transport use decreased significantly from 2019–20 to 2021–22 and was the lowest on record since 1983–84. Public transport use recovered in 2022–23 and was almost as high as pre COVID-19 years.
- Annual light rail boardings have ranged from 2.3 million to 3.7 million since commencing in 2019.
- The light rail has proven to be a successful public transport addition to the ACT, with increased public transport boardings for the services operating along the Gungahlin Town Centre route.
- Current public transport use remains significantly lower than previous decades despite population growth. This suggests that the ACT currently has a greatly reduced patronage of public transport services, particularly when combined with the preference for car use in the Territory.
- Cycling is highly variable across the ACT with the inner city area having a significantly higher uptake of cycling, likely due to a flatter terrain and shorter distances to work and study centres.
- Between 2011 and 2021, cycling participation in the ACT was higher than the national average for weekly, monthly and annual participation.
- Given the high level of cycling infrastructure in the ACT, there is much scope for improving cycling participation, including across gender and age groups.
Water resources and consumption
Water resources
- From June 2019 to June 2023, storage volumes were highly variable for all ACT reservoirs in response to annual changes to inflows and water use. The variation in water storage volumes is consistent with a long-term trend in the ACT of extended periods of reduced storage inflows punctuated by years of high rainfall.
- Following a period of lower storage volumes when the ACT’s four reservoirs were holding just 55% of the total ACT storage capacity in June 2020, very high annual rainfall resulted in full, or close to full, storage capacity for all reservoirs from 2021 to 2023.
- From 2001–02 to 2019–20, all but two years (2010–11 and 2011-12) had total inflows to storages that were below the long-term average. The wetter years from 2020–21 to 2022–23 provided inflows that were much higher than the long-term average, with inflows in 2021–22 over two and a half times above the long-term average.
- The long-term trends in the ACT’s storage volumes and inflows show that although recent years have provided above average water resources, the region is prone to long periods of dry conditions.
Potable water consumption (data includes Queanbeyan)
- Potable water consumption remained fairly consistent between 2013–14 and 2022–23, ranging from around 46,000 to 56,000 megalitres per year, despite increases in the population serviced.
- Water usage in 2019–20 (around 56,000 megalitres), was the highest volume for over a decade. This increase was driven by three years of hotter and drier weather conditions. Water use decreased sharply in 2020–21 and 2021–22 in response to much wetter years.
- Per capita water use has been fairly consistent during the decade 2013–14 to 2022–23, ranging from 66 to 83 kilolitres per person annually. This is far lower than the per capita water use in the early 2000s of around 120 kilolitres per person.
- Residential supply is responsible for most water use in the ACT, accounting for around 60% to 66% of the total supplied annually. Consequently, it is important to maintain and improve water use efficiency at the household level.
Managing the environmental and sustainability impacts from human settlements in the ACT
Context
The impacts of human settlement on the environment are many and varied, and there are a range of Acts, policies and programs in place to manage them. The ACT Government typically uses a multi-pronged approach to address impacts, which includes community education, incentivisation of desired behaviours, investment in technology and infrastructure to support those behaviours, and modelling of desired actions in its own operations.
For more information about the ACT Government’s approach to climate change adaptation refer to Climate Change.
Policy framework
The Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act 2010 legislates the ACT’s target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by June 2045, and outlines some of the ways this will be achieved. It also establishes the Climate Change Council to advise the Minister on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The ACT Climate Change Strategy 2019–25 is the main policy instrument for implementing the ACT’s ambitious climate actions. It articulates a vision that “By 2045 the ACT will be a leading net zero emissions territory that demonstrates that a healthier, smarter future is possible”. It spells out the emission reduction targets to 2045 and identifies the actions to meet them, as well as build resilience to climate change impacts. The strategy aims to embed the consideration of climate change in both Government and community decision-making.
In 2021 the ACT Government established the Office of the Coordinator General for Climate Action to coordinate and support the ACT Government’s agenda for climate action. The role of this office includes looking into policy and planning reform, and facilitating some of the larger programs promised under the Climate Change Strategy 2019–25. Other responsibilities for delivery on the actions are split primarily across the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, Community Services Directorate and the Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate.
The ACT Government has implemented a range of rules, incentives and programs to support electrification, energy efficiency and local renewable energy. The focus on equity and low-income households to ensure programs in this area are not exclusionary is an area of strength for the ACT.
The Suburban Land Agency has developed a Sustainability Strategy 2021–25 which sets out objectives under four themes to ensure ecologically sustainable development is embedded into new subdivisions and urban estates that the Agency delivers.
The ACT Transport Strategy 2020 is an important complementary document to the Climate Change Strategy 2019–25, recognising that transport is the major contributor to the ACT’s greenhouse gas emissions. It discusses a range of ways to reduce vehicle emissions, ranging from encouraging active travel and use of public transport through to incentivising the purchase of zero emissions vehicles. The ACT’s Zero Emissions Vehicles Strategy 2022–30 and its predecessor the Zero Emissions Vehicles Action Plan 2018–2021 provide more detail on how a transition away from internal combustion engine vehicles will be achieved. An Active Travel Plan to encourage walking and cycling is also in the final stages of development at the time of writing. Within government, the public transport vehicle fleet will shift to zero emissions by 2040 guided by the Zero–Emission Transition Plan for Transport Canberra 2020.
The ACT Waste Management and Resource Recovery Act 2016 establishes a regulatory framework to support the achievement of the resource recovery objectives of the ACT Waste Management Strategy 2011–2025. The Act intends to facilitate and reward good practice in waste collection, transportation, recovery and reuse and discourages disposal of waste to landfill. In 2021, the Act was amended to enable introduction of a household Food Organics and Garden Organics service, as well as other measures to improve waste management.
The ACT Waste Management Strategy 2011–2025: Towards a Sustainable Canberra provides a framework for sustainable resource management with the target of resource recovery to over 90% by 2025. Its aims include reduced waste generation, full resource recovery, a clean environment and a carbon neutral waste sector.
On 1 July 2021, the ACT Government banned single-use plastics through the Plastics Reduction Act 2021. In the first tranche of actions, expanded polystyrene takeaway food and beverage containers, and single use plastic cutlery and stirrers were banned. The second tranche, from 1 July 2022, banned single use plastic straws, cotton buds with plastic sticks and all oxo-degradable plastics. In the third tranche, from 1 July 2023, microbeads, expanded polystyrene products and packaging and plastic takeaway containers were banned.
The Water Resources Act 2007 aims to ensure that management and use of the water resources of the Territory sustain the physical, economic and social wellbeing of the people of the ACT. The ACT Water Strategy 2014–44: Striking the Balance aims to assure Canberra’s long-term water supply through a range of approaches including reducing mains water consumption and diversifying water sources. In general, the ACT water policy suite seeks to maintain the reduction in water consumption that was achieved by water restrictions and other policy interventions during the Millenium Drought. This represents a reduction of 40% compared with 2003 consumption rates.
Policy effectiveness
The ACT is undoubtedly a leader in Australia in its approach to reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. The ACT Government has introduced an impressive range of programs[11] to support Canberra residents in making changes which contribute to this reduction, ranging from grants and financial incentives to behaviour change education. Further, an independent review of the Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act 2010 conducted in 2021 found that it had been highly effective in allowing the ACT Government to set the groundwork for action, to develop policy and successfully meet emissions reduction and renewable energy targets.
Nevertheless, there are areas where policy relating to the environmental impacts of human settlement in the ACT could be strengthened.
Ecological footprint
Despite an impressive range of policy interventions and progress on emissions reduction in many areas, the ACT’s ecological footprint remains high. Nine planet Earths would be needed to sustain human life if all people lived the same lifestyle as ACT residents. For comparison, the global average ecological footprint in 2022 was calculated as being 1.75 planet Earths.[12] Although the ACT Government has made significant efforts to reduce the Territory’s scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, around 94% of our emissions are from scope 3 emissions generated from goods and services consumed in the ACT but produced elsewhere. This includes construction materials, vehicles, household items, food and clothing.
The ACT Government currently has no plan to directly address the Territory’s substantial scope 3 emissions. While there are a number of policies which go towards addressing some aspects of the ACT’s large ecological footprint, as with other policy areas, there is no overarching framework to bring these different domains together with a strategic approach.
Transport
As the ACT Transport Strategy 2020 is relatively new, it has also not been in place long enough to properly assess its effectiveness. However, public and active transport use have declined during this reporting period in spite of the plans and strategies in place to encourage these practices. Decreased public transport use is indicative of a longer-term trend compared with previous decades and is not solely an effect of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed during this reporting period. While the ACT Government is investing in expanding the light rail network this trend suggests that more work is needed to understand the motivations and barriers which dictate Canberran’s use of public and active transport.
Waste
The ACT Waste and Management Strategy 2011–2025 is an ambitious strategy with strong targets and clearly outlined outcomes. The ACT has the second highest resource recovery rate (75%–80%) in Australia after South Australia, however reaching the 90% target set out in the Strategy remains challenging. This is especially the case when resource recovery in Australia has been impacted by the changes in the past five years following the China’s change to their waste import policy. As the ACT Waste and Management Strategy 2011–2025 is reaching its end of life and due to disruptions caused by waste export changes, it has become outdated. However, several policies and Acts have been put in place both on Federal and ACT level addressing the changes in the waste sector over the last decade. As the ACT might be preparing to develop a new waste strategy, to remain a policy leader in Australia it is recommended that the new waste strategy:
- adjusts strategic planning and actions that account for the changes that occurred in the waste sector over the last decade
- takes the opportunity to connect with the net zero targets
- includes the circular economy principles, and
- integrates with the strategic plans from energy, water, planning and transport to guarantee both net zero and circular economy visions are fulfilled.
Water
Water efficiency has understandably not been at the forefront of decision-making in the ACT over the last two years of wetter-than-average conditions but is likely to become more pressing as the Territory moves back into a predicted period of hotter and drier weather. Canberra’s increasing population and urban footprint are likely to disproportionately increase domestic water consumption. While historic gains from programs promoting domestic water efficiency are still paying dividends, new residents may be unfamiliar with water saving behaviours. The houses, gardens and municipal greenspace in new developments will inevitably increase demand for water even if constructed with water efficiency in mind. A renewed focus on water efficiency in domestic and commercial settings is likely to be necessary in the near future.
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