One example was the establishment of the Alexander Maconochie Centre, Australia's first human rights prison, at significant expense in 2008.

Another has been the ongoing investment in cycle and walking paths and, more recently, the introduction of light rail, to reduce Canberran's reliance on motor cars.

While each of these initiatives remains significant, their long term significance is dwarfed by the work that has been done since 2013 to make the Territory 100 per cent reliant on renewable electricity by 2020.

Given the scepticism that greeted the original announcement just five years ago, Canberrans would be drawing 90 per cent of its power from renewable sources by the end of the decade, the progress has been remarkable with almost 80 per cent of our electricity to come from renewables by the end of this year.

While this has been, in large part, due to a fortunate convergence of political will and emerging technologies, nobody can deny Australia's only city state has shown leadership while a succession of federal governments have been unable to articulate a workable energy policy.

The downside is that because the ACT has chosen to go it alone rather than wait until a future Coalition or Labor government is able to resolve the national energy policy impasse, the cost of going green on such a scale has had to be borne by Canberra consumers.

The latest report on the impact of the switch to green energy through the Energy Efficiency Improvement Scheme and the Large Scale Feed In Tariff scheme revealed individual households were paying an extra $72 per year for renewables.

While this is still well down on the 2016 estimate that the scheme could be costing consumers up to $290 on the average annual power bill by its peak in 2020, it remains a significant impost for many and it will rise as the ACT gets closer to the 100 per cent target.

Not every household has the benefit of two public service incomes. Workers in the service and retail sectors and those on fixed incomes, including the unemployed and retirees, have been hit hard by the soaring cost of accommodation and round after round of rate rises, fee increases and the like.

While many Canberrans are broadly in support of the ACT's moves to source and produce clean energy, they also care about the size of their power bills.

Despite technological breakthroughs and the falling cost of renewables, the 100 per cent target will be adding an estimated $255 to average annual power bills by 2020.

While the ACT is perhaps one of the best placed jurisdictions to carry that cost, it will sting for many households. As we push forward with our ambitions to lead the nation in the uptake of renewable energy, we need to remain mindful of the duty of care governments have to looking after and supporting those citizens least able to bear those additional costs.