ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 50

Introduction
Since the release of the Bruntland Report nearly three decades ago (Bruntland, 1987), climate
change has become deeply ingrained in public discourse and has challenged governments to
implement ways of reducing damaging anthropogenic activities. Buildings are major contributors to negative environmental impacts via carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions emanating from ongoing occupation of buildings. The need to reduce these damaging activities is deemed essential
by many (Stern 2007, Garnaut 2011). Globally, varying climates present long-term housing issues
unique to individual countries, such that ‘development possibilities are particular to each city and
must be assessed within the context of its own region’ (Bruntland 1978:170).
Considerable research has been undertaken into the barriers facing the adoption of energy efficient housing, largely concluding that without concerted government intervention integration
of such measures into everyday house choice decisions is problematic (Blunt & Dowling 2006,
Reid et al 2010). As key stakeholders, it is incumbent upon government and industry to consider
mechanisms that facilitate market acceptance for more energy efficient houses. Environmental
policies in Australia have been the subject of extensive debate as political ideologies collide in
public forums resulting in a view that Australia’s commitment to ongoing change is questionable
(Lowe, 2014). Current paradigms are embedded in neo-liberal capitalistic beliefs that market forces will drive change. The current Australian government has set in place a framework to facilitate
this standpoint. Solar technologies are considered an essential component of CO2 emission reductions due to their ability to replace fossil fuel in energy production (Nelson et al 2014). Considerable efforts and advancements have been made globally to introduce solar technologies into
the housing sector and, in Australia, federal and state governments also introduced schemes to
subsidise solar technologies. These financial subsidies apply to both installation and feed-in tariffs, but have been progressively reduced from the initial levels, claiming that design and manufacturing improvements have led to considerable real cost reductions (Climate Commission 2013).
Examining the effectiveness of this approach, this research investigates the extent to which real
estate agents in Melbourne Australia are advertising house solar energy technologies and the
relationship they may have with demographic characteristics. The research examines real estate
advertisements used to market established housing stock in Victoria between 2008 and 2013.

Drivers for domestic solar technologies
The scientific community has attributed many recent extreme weather events to climate change
as being caused anthropogenic activity leading to excessive amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions (Australian Academy of Science 2010 ). Housing in Australia is believed to contribute
between 7% (Department of Indu