Submission to the NSW Net Zero Commission 2025

The Justice and Equity Centre led a joint consumer and community response to the NSW Net Zero Commission’s 2025 consultation. The submission was co-signed by the Tenants’ Union of NSW and the First Nations Clean Energy Network. The NSW Net Zero Commission sought feedback from stakeholders on how NSW can best achieve our legislated climate targets on schedule.

NSW’s Net Zero Plan and associated targets are foundations for the action NSW must take to meet our international climate obligations and limit warming to 1.5 C degrees (and no more than 2 degrees). Our organisations strongly support these targets and a robust legislated Net Zero architecture capable of driving the action necessary to meet them.

The next 5-10 years must see rapid investment in clean energy, prioritisation of energy efficiency, electrification of the energy system and economy, decarbonisation of industry and agriculture, and the rapid retreat of fossil fuels. Action on all fronts is critical to ensuring the health and wellbeing of NSW residents, the sustainability and affordability of energy and housing, and the resilience of the community to the impacts of climate change already being experienced.

The Commission included a request for feedback and recommendations on how to ensure social equity is prioritised and facilitated through the Net Zero Plan. Our organisations are well-placed to provide that feedback, and included a range of key recommendations including:

That the Commission include the following as priority recommendations for the Built Environment Sector in the Commission’s forward work plan and the 2025 Annual Report:

• Progressively implementing mandatory minimum energy efficiency standards for rental properties by 2026, with a committed pathway to ensure all homes are zero-emissions ready;

• Provide government assistance for low-income owner occupiers through a combination of subsidies and zero-interest loans to undertake home energy upgrades;

• Increase the funding for the Social Housing Energy Performance Initiative to progressively upgrade 100% of NSW’s social housing stock by 2032;

• Align and expand on existing Government and industry schemes (such as the ESS, PDRS and energy rebates) to support priority electrification and efficiency upgrades for low income and disadvantaged groups;

• Fund bespoke, place-based community engagement programs, particularly targeting migrant, First Nations and rural and remote communities.

That the Commission include the following priority recommendations on the Electricity and Energy Sector to the NSW Government in their 2025 Annual Report:

• Requiring the Government to make a plan for the forthcoming closure of Eraring, avoiding the reliability gap without extending the life of Eraring;

• Ensuring that all recommendations from the NSW Electricity Supply and Reliability Check-up have been acted on;

• Strengthening the monitoring and enforcement mechanisms for local content targets;

• Accelerate implementation of the actions list in the NSW Consumer Energy Strategy, and build on initial grants and incentives;

• Support the clarification of EnergyCo’s role as the state planner, its expansion into areas such as system security, and increasing its resources commensurate with this;

• Adjust the cost recovery arrangements in the EII Act 2020 to ensure an equitable andefficient incidence of costs for energy investments under the Roadmap.