Thread: Keeping tabs on Australia"s newly elected Government

• Australia’s climate has warmed by 1.5C since 1910, BoM temperature records show

Australia’s climate has officially warmed by 1.5C since 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s long-term record of temperatures.

The figure is revealed in the bureau’s annual climate statement that found 2023 was Australia’s joint-eighth warmest year on record, with the national temperature 0.98C above the average between 1961 and 1990.

Countries around the world have agreed to “pursue efforts” to keep global heating to 1.5C, but this temperature goal is widely accepted as being relative to a pre-industrial period from 1850 to 1900 and combines land and ocean temperatures across the globe.

The bureau’s declaration that the continent has warmed by 1.5C has a margin of error that is plus or minus 0.23C, includes only land temperatures and does not relate to targets to keep global heating to 1.5C.

Dr Simon Grainger, a senior climatologist at the bureau, said the warming of Australia’s land surface had moved from 1.48C to the new 1.5C mark after another year of data was added.

“This warming [in Australia] is consistent with a global climate that is warming with 2023 being the warmest year on record globally,” he said.

Global heating is being caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and land clearing that has increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by about 50% since the 18th century.

Dr Andrew King, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne, said he was “not surprised” Australia’s land surface had hit 1.5C “because we know Australia is already warming above the global average”.

“We also know that the land is warming faster than the ocean and many regions are warming faster than the global average,” he said.

A study published last year using Australia’s official records supplemented by older temperature observations, found the land had warmed by about 1.6C relative to the period between 1850 and 1900. Australia’s land surface had warmed at about 1.4 times the global average of 1.1C, the study said.

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• Labor’s fuel efficiency standards mean all new cars could be EVs by 2035, industry group says

Suppliers of electric vehicles are the big winners from the Albanese government’s fuel efficiency standards with one industry group saying half of all new cars will be electric by 2029 and 100% by 2035 on the proposed trajectory.

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, and infrastructure minister, Catherine King, released the details of the plan for consultation on Sunday, saying motorists would potentially save $1,000 a year by 2028 as manufacturers brought in more efficient models.

New passenger cars in Australia use 40% more fuel than those in the European Union, and 20% more than equivalent vehicles in the US. Australia will aim to benchmark measures to the US where driving patterns are more similar.

The Electric Vehicle Council, an industry group, was among those welcoming the standards, including the government’s preferred option that is predicted to slice the nation’s carbon emissions by avoiding almost 100m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2035 and 369m tonnes by 2050.

“We’re pretty pleased with where they’ve landed,” said Behyad Jafari, the council’s chief executive. “We’ve doubled EV sales for three years in a row [to 8.4% of the market in 2023] and we’d like to see it double again this year.”

One industry insider who asked not to be named said the government had “done a really great job”, adding it was “as ambitious as we’d hoped”.

Australia is the only OECD nation without energy efficiency standards for new vehicles other than Russia. The government issued a consultation paper in April 2023 on the proposals, and is giving the public another month to provide feedback before proposing legislation to introduce the scheme by next January.

A likely outcome would be the emergence of a market for carbon credits. EV-only makers such as such as China’s BYD and Tesla from the US would be able to sell credits to carmakers such as Japan’s Toyota or Isuzu that will struggle to match the low-emissions offerings, the insider said.

Matt Hobbs, the chief executive of the Motor Trades Association of Australia, said the emergence of a carbon price “does help” the transition but much more is needed to ensure the market moves to where the government wants it to.

“The actual trajectory is very, very aggressive,” Hobbs said of the government’s preferred option. “I didn’t think they’d go this fast.”

“Fifty per cent of the market will have to be EVs by 2029 to hit these targets,” with an implied 100% share if extended to 2035, he said.

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• Australian Energy Regulator takes legal action against Callide Power Trading over generator explosion

The Australian Energy Regulator is taking a coal-fired Queensland power station to court over an explosion that left nearly half a million homes without power.

In May 2021, multiple generators and high voltage transmission lines in Queensland were tripped following an explosion in the C4 unit at the Callide Power Station in Biloela, central Queensland.

The incident caused nearly 500,000 customers to lose power, from the NSW border to north of Cairns.

On Friday, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) began legal proceedings in the Federal Court, alleging Callide Power Trading broke National Electricity Rules, failing to comply with its own performance standards for Callide C4.

The AER alleges the C4 unit did not have sufficient energy supply to disconnect the generating unit when the faults occurred on the day of the explosion, nor did it have a protection system to promptly disconnect it.

AER board member Justin Oliver said adhering to generator performance standards was "critical" to safe operations.

"Failure to comply with these standards can risk power system security, see consumers disconnected from power supply and cause wholesale energy prices to increase during and beyond these events," Mr Oliver said.

When will it come back online?

Following the C4 explosion, in 2022 generator C3 was also taken offline in an incident involving structural failure.

Efforts to bring both units back online have been plagued with delays.

CS Energy said last month the C3 unit would return to service by the end of March, while the C4 unit was expected to be back online fully by the end of July.

Callide Power Trading, which is the market participant for Callide C Power Trading, is owned in a joint venture.

IG Power owns 50 per cent, while the other half is owned by Callide Energy, a subsidiary of the Queensland government company CS Energy.

In a statement on Friday, Callide Power Trading said it would work co-operatively with the AER to resolve the matter "as soon as possible".

Voluntary administrators were appointed to IG Power in March last year.

Minister for Energy Mark de Brenni said he acknowledged the findings of the AER.

"I am confident that after meeting with workers at the Callide power station, safety and protocol standards are of the utmost importance to CS Energy and its operations," Mr de Brenni said.

Shadow energy minister Deb Frecklington said Queensland was still waiting for answers nearly 1,000 days after the incident.

"In the middle of Queensland's cost-of-living crisis, the seriousness of this development cannot be overstated," she said.

In a separate matter, last month the Federal Court ordered IG Power to appoint special administrators with powers to complete a new investigation into the incidents at the power station.

There is no set date for when the AER's matter will be heard before the Federal Court.

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• Senators reject Greens bill to insert climate trigger into environmental laws

A Senate committee has recommended the parliament vote down a bill that would insert a climate trigger into Australia’s national environmental laws.

The bill, introduced by the Greens, would for the first time require the environment minister to consider the climate impact of a major development during the assessment process under Australia’s environmental laws.

It proposes a ban on developments that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year and a requirement for ministerial approval for any projects that would emit between 25,000 and 100,000 tonnes of C02 annually.

“Labor face a huge test this year – will they fix our broken environment law to stop new coal, gas and native forest logging projects or not?” said the Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young.

“In 2024, it is ludicrous that the environment minister can give environmental approval to projects that wreck our climate and destroy our forests.”

But government and coalition members of an upper house committee considering the bill have recommended it be rejected.

This was despite recognising “the significant and profound impact of climate change on the environment, including past and future emissions of greenhouse gases” and “the need for significant reductions of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions”.

“While the committee commends the objectives and intention of the bill, the committee notes a number of significant recent developments since this bill was introduced,” the report states.

It said this included last year’s passage of reforms to the safeguard mechanism, which would “result in emissions reduction from both existing and new industrial facilities”. The report said the bill, by contrast, would only deal with emissions from new facilities and risked duplicating work already being done under the safeguard mechanism.

The committee also said planned reform this year of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act would ensure that the projected emissions from proposed developments were “transparent prior to their environmental assessment”.

In additional comments, Coalition members of the committee said they believed a climate trigger “would actually deliver the reverse outcome – that is, it would significantly complicate (and compromise) the task of emissions reduction in Australia”.

In a dissenting report, the Greens said it was critical the parliament pass the bill to close a “glaring loophole” in Australia’s laws. They wrote it was disappointing to see the majority report rule out supporting a climate trigger, a position that ignored the “deep and inherent link between our climate and the environment”.

“The safeguard mechanism is but one measure required to address the threats of climate change on Australia’s communities, environment, economies. The safeguard mechanism does not consider the impact of fossil fuels and global warming on our natural environment”.

The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said the government had already made changes to strengthen Australia’s climate laws.

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• Jacinta Price talks to angry farmers at anti-renewables rally outside Canberra Parliament House

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has made a rockstar return to Parliament as she delivered a firey speech against the government’s renewables push.

The opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman was welcomed at the farmers’ rally by a cheering crowd outside of Parliament House on Tuesday.

“You are the custodians of our land. You know better than anybody the importance of taking care of our country,” she told the farmers.

“We should be listening to you. But where is our prime minister and where is Mr (Climate and Energy minister Chris) Bowen? They should have been here. They should have consulted you.”

Senator Price told the roaring crowd, who were protesting against the government’s renewables target of 82 per cent by 2030, she had heard concerns from regional citizens during a road trip with her husband over Christmas.

“I drove to Broken Hill and through to Coober Pedy and nothing angered me more than the sight of wind turbines. Especially after hearing from regional Australians about what it means to clear their land, what it means to have to dispose of these horrible eyesores” Senator Price said.

“The fact that they don’t produce reliable energy. They only produce energy .. slightly .. when the wind blows.

“But the wind’s not blowing now and the sun’s not out now, is it?”

More than 500 people attended Tuesday’s rally, with many calling for a suspension of wind and solar farms and an inquiry into Australia’s clean energy rollout.

Some farmers expressed their frustrations over plans to build hydro power plants across agricultural and rainforest territory.

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, who attended with his former staffer and wife Vikki Campion told the rally that the new construction of wind and solar farms would risk killing off protected wildlife.

“How can that possibly be of environment benefit? To kill wildlife? But on top of that .. it’s a swindle. It’s a massive multinational swindle underpinned by your taxpayer dollars,” he said.

Former MP Craig Kelly declared Labor’s renewables policy as a “betrayal for our nation.”

“We have men like blackout [Chris] Bowen that wants to close down the remaining 21 gigawatts we have while China is building six times more,” Mr Kelly said.

“We must get rid of net zero.”

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• Queensland government approves coalmine despite concern over ‘climate change consequences’

The Queensland government has approved Whitehaven’s Winchester South coalmine to extract up to 17m tonnes of thermal and metallurgical coal each year for 28 years.

Queensland’s coordinator-general recommended the approval of the mine last year despite conceding it “has the capacity to limit human rights” due to “climate change consequences that may arise from the project.”

The project is estimated to produce 583m tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution – more than Australia’s national annual greenhouse gas emissions – including 14.2m tonnes of on site emissions, and 567m tonnes of scope three emissions when it is burned overseas.

Approximately 58% of the mine’s coal is slated for steel production, while the other 42% would be exported to Asian countries for use producing electricity.

The decision comes after Queensland premier, Steven Miles, doubled the state’s emissions reduction target to 75% by 2035 – making it one of the most ambitious in the country.

Dr Coral Rowston, the director of Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland, said it was “contradictory” for the Queensland government to approve the mine so soon after bolstering its emissions reduction target.

The Queensland Miles Government can reduce the state’s emissions, or it can have new coalmines. It can’t have both.”

The mine still requires federal approval before going ahead.

• Australian fossil fuel tax could raise $100bn in first year alone, Rod Sims and Ross Garnaut say

A tax on fossil fuel production could help fund Australia’s transition to becoming a carbon-free energy giant, lower the cost of living and assist the world to cut greenhouse emissions, according to two veteran economists.

Ross Garnaut, a leading economist during the Hawke government, and Rod Sims, a former head of the competition watchdog, say a so-called carbon solution levy would raise $100bn in its first year alone if introduced in 2030-31 and set at Europe’s five-year average price of $90/tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent.

This tax combined with other steps – including deploying the levy to subsidise as much as half the cost of new carbon-free iron, aluminium or fuel production plants – would allow Australia to exploit its abundant renewable energy resources to revive an increasingly moribund economy, they will say.

“The global transition to net zero is Australia’s opportunity,” Garnaut, the founder of the Superpower Institute, will say in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday. “We can use it to raise productivity and living standards after the decade of stagnation.”

Taking a cue from the Albanese government’s reworking of the legislated stage-three tax cuts, Garnaut will say shifting politics could prompt politicians to alter course and rework policies such as reintroducing a carbon price scrapped a decade ago by the Abbott government.

“We know that the constraints from the climate wars make the implementation of the [carbon levy] impossible,” he will say. But it “is not as impossible as living with our failure to play our full part in the global effort to stop the bushfires and cyclones and denudation of our beaches getting worse. It is not as impossible as being unable to pay for our ageing population, and unable to pay for our submarines.”

Sims, chair of the Superpower Institute, will tell the National Press Club that some of these ideas “may be rejected immediately”. Still, it is important to keep “tilling the soil” to nurture them, noting that past changes such as cutting import tariffs were initially very unpopular.

“Basic economics means you must price the damage that fossil carbon imposes on us all,” Sims will say. “Not to do so is to make it essentially impossible for green products to compete with currently cheaper fossil fuel products.”

Garnaut is also optimistic that “strong bipartisan support for good policy on energy and climate in all the states” will provide a foundation for a national shift. “The dysfunction is in the commonwealth parliament,” he will say.

“In the zero-carbon economy, Australia is the economically natural location to produce a substantial proportion of the products currently made with large carbon emissions in Northeast Asia and Europe,” he will say in his speech. “So not only are we looking after the prosperity of Australians, we’re making it more likely that the world will succeed in dealing with the problem of climate change.”

Garnaut will dismiss the view that imposing a levy on the finances of the fossil industry creates “sovereign risk” for the investments.

“Was it sovereign risk when the coal and gas industry and others funded the political campaigns that led to the abolition of carbon pricing?” Garnaut will say. “That was a huge change of arrangement that fundamentally changed the business prospects of a lot of investments made in expectation of legislated arrangements continuing.

“There’s been expectation of constraints on carbon dioxide emissions … for 23 years.

“Anyone who does not anticipate what is good or necessary policy coming in at some time hasn’t absorbed any of the reality around them.

“In the end political judgments will have to be made about whether restoration of rising income standards … and productivity growth and prosperity for the Australian people are more important than preserving the profitability of the oil and gas companies.”

Wednesday’s speech will also call on the federal government to revise its new capital investment scheme that would support 23 gigawatts of new solar and windfarms and 9GW of additional storage such as batteries.

The current auction proposal to lure investors by promising a minimum generation price could cost the budget heavily and “drift into central planning”, he will say. Instead, the commonwealth could underwrite 80% of the costs of a project and rake in 40% of the profits once the investor has got their money back.

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• Australian red meat industry’s net zero target based on land-clearing data that is ‘not reliable’

Meat and Livestock Australia says it has reduced emissions by 65% on 2005 levels but data analysis suggests figures underpinning claim are ‘erroneous’

Greenhouse gas reduction figures celebrated by Australia’s red meat industry are based on unreliable land-clearing data and could be erroneous, an independent analysis has found.

In Queensland, where roughly 44% of the national cattle herd grazes and the majority of land clearing has occurred, the Statewide Landcover and Tree Study (Slats) has recorded deforestation at almost twice the rate of the national system used to calculate emissions on the red meat industry.

In an analysis of both systems, Martin Taylor, a former conservation scientist with WWF Australia and now adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, found the national carbon accounting system (NCAS) may be significantly underreporting deforestation in the state.

“It’s good Meat and Livestock Australia is attempting to reduce their emissions but it has to be based on reliable data,” Taylor said. “We can’t be building stories on data that analysis suggests is erroneous.”

MLA has widely publicised a 65% reduction in emissions compared with 2005 levels. Nearly 90% of the industry’s emissions are associated with the production and processing of beef cattle.

Taylor’s latest report, released in December, analysed satellite data from 2018-19 and 20219-20 and concluded deforestation in Queensland is 36-62% higher than NCAS reporting. These findings are yet to be peer reviewed.

“The reported decline in red meat industry emissions is almost totally due to declining deforestation and rising regeneration reported in the national greenhouse accounts,” Taylor said. “So if those accounts are not reliable and under-report deforestation it throws the industry claim into doubt.”

According to the source of MLA’s claim – a 2022 CSIRO report based on NCAS data – decreasing deforestation means land managed by the sector has become a net carbon sink.

The report found that land cleared to make way for grazing pastures emitted 87 megatonnes of CO2 across Australia in 2005. But in 2020, increasing forest regrowth offset land-clearing emissions, and land managed by the industry – which equates to half Australia’s land mass – sequestered one tonne of CO2 from atmosphere in total.

The author of the CSIRO report, Dr Brad Ridoutt, said the data used to produce the figure had “significant potential for uncertainty” but is consistent and retrospectively updated as the NCAS becomes more accurate.

“The national figures are not based on laboratory samples, they are based on models,” he said.

Dr Beverley Henry from the University of Technology Queensland said the industry’s recorded decrease in emissions since 2005 was largely due to the introduction of stricter environmental laws and lessening economic incentives to clear increasingly marginal land, rather than any sector-led initiatives.

“When they publish their emission reductions land-use changes should be separated out,” Henry said.

If changes in land use were excluded from the sector’s emissions accounting, greenhouse gases would have been just 11% lower in 2020 compared with 2005 levels; though Ridoutt’s report found this was mostly due to a reduction in livestock numbers.

Since 2020, the size of the national beef cattle herd has increased by roughly 2 million, returning to similar levels seen in 2005.

In the early 1990s, Henry assisted in building the land-use emissions component of the NCAS. Later she worked in the Queensland Slats team.

She said that while the veracity of both systems has improved over time, Queensland’s state system measures changes in tree cover more accurately. However, she added that the NCAS system is based on standardised accounting set by the United Nations and should be used.

“If we are going to have credibility it is appropriate to use data consistent with these accounts,” she said. “But its accuracy at any location is a different question.”

Separating land-clearing data in the industry’s marketing material would provide a more accurate picture of their own sustainability efforts, she said.

“I think increasing the efficiency of production is very worthwhile for a whole lot of reasons and will lead to lower emissions per kilogram of meat,” she said. “But I don’t believe, based on what we know now, it is possible for the industry to become carbon neutral.”

Last week, MLA said their self-imposed target is “not necessarily something that needs to be met”, although it has since reaffirmed its commitment to reaching the goal.

The director of the Australian National University Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, Mark Howden, said the 2005 baseline is a convenient choice to demonstrate greenhouse gas reductions.

“Generally speaking, that period around 2005-07 was peak emissions from land-use change [due to land clearing],” he said. “When you’re at peak emissions, there is only one way to go, and that’s down.”

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• Bold emission target laws introduced in Queensland

Laws to legislate bold increased emissions reduction targets have been introduced by the Queensland government.

Steven Miles announced when becoming premier in December he would move the Sunshine State's emissions goalposts even further over the next decade.

Mr Miles on Wednesday took the first step when he tabled legislation that commits the state to a 75 per cent reduction target by 2035.

The existing goals of 30 per cent by 2030 and net zero by 2050 remain.

The premier said the landmark plan would chart Queensland away from fossil fuels and towards renewable alternatives.

He said decarbonising Queensland's economy was critical, citing future projects such as the world's largest pumped hydro scheme in the northern Pioneer-Burdekin region.

"We're progressing major wind projects like the Wambo and MacIntyre wind farms so we can power even more Queensland homes with cheaper, cleaner renewable energy," he said.

The government is also forging ahead with a $5 billion plan to link the mineral-rich northwest with the national grid via a high voltage line from Townsville.

The Copperstring project is set to provide more affordable power to companies mining vast deposits of copper, zinc, lead, silver and phosphates and rare earths needed to make smartphones and renewable energy parts.

The enormous infrastructure project has bipartisan support.

Mr Miles said these projects and more renewable alternatives in the pipeline would cut energy prices, with the economic benefits passed on to Queenslanders.

"I am proud of the work we are doing to preserve Queensland's environment for the next generation to reduce our emissions contribution to slow climate change and power Queensland on the sun, wind and water we have in abundance," he said.

The government's emission target has been welcomed by environmentalists who' have called for its bipartisan support.

"We call on Queensland's opposition leader David Crisafulli to match this target to lock in a bipartisan approach and boost the LNP's credibility on climate heading into an election year," said Australian Conservation Foundation's Gavan McFadzean.

In the midst of a renewables push, the government has also continued with fossil fuel approvals in central Queensland's Bowen Basin.

The Vulcan South coal mine had been issued an approval by the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation in January with environmentalists calling on federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to intervene.

Habitats for koalas, the endangered greater glider, the vulnerable glossy black cockatoo and squatter pigeon are at risk should the project go ahead.

The Queensland government last week granted approvals for an open-cut metallurgical and thermal coal mine expected to emit 583 million tonnes of carbon emissions, also in the Bowen Basin.

The state's co-ordinator-general recommended Winchester South proceed in November before the department approved the environmental authority application for Whitehaven's mine.

Environmentalists have also called on Ms Plibersek to intervene in its approval.

Methane levels produced by Winchester South put both the 2035 targets and 2050 net zero targets at risk, the Queensland Conservation Council said.

Winchester South has a proposed 30-year life and is expected to mine a combined 17 million tonnes of thermal and metallurgical coal per year.

• Related news: Queensland Greens hit out at Labor ‘hypocrisy’ for approving two coalmines

But the government has since approved the Vulcan South and Winchester South coal mines which are now seeking federal government approval before they can go ahead.

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• Woodside dramatically expands oil and gas exploration spend despite net zero pledge

Australia’s largest oil and gas producer, Woodside Energy, has expanded its focus on fossil fuel exploration and increased its direct greenhouse gas pollution since announcing it had an “aspiration” of reaching net zero emissions.

Woodside’s spending on looking for new oil and gas reserves was $160m in 2019 and dipped to $96m in 2021 – a year affected by the Covid-19 pandemic – before rising to $418m in 2022, according to a report by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The jump was largely due to the company taking over BHP’s global oil and gas assets in mid 2022, and came after the company said it aspired to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.

The goal covers only its “scope 1” and “scope 2” emissions – those from its operations and in generating the electricity it uses. Woodside said in 2022 it had cut them by 11%, compared with the average between 2016 and 2020.

The conservation foundation’s report, released on Monday, said the claimed emissions cut was based on the company buying contentious carbon offsets, mostly investing in land-based conservation projects. The carbon pollution released into the atmosphere from its operations increased by 3%.

The report said the aspirational target did not cover 92% of Woodside’s contribution to the climate crisis because it ignored the “scope 3” emissions released when the company’s customers, mostly in north Asia, burned the oil and gas it extracted and produced.

The foundation’s corporate environmental performance analyst, Audrey van Herwaarden, accused Woodside of greenwashing by claiming it was reducing climate pollution while expanding its fossil fuel plans. “Net zero greenwashing poses a serious risk to humanity’s ability to tackle global warming, as it distracts from and delays concrete and credible action,” she said.

Woodside’s expansion plans include developing the Scarborough and Browse gas fields off the northern Western Australian coast and extending the life of its North West Shelf gas processing facility on the Burrup peninsula until 2070. Its “growth projects” also include oil developments in Senegal and the Gulf of Mexico.

“we need to take climate change very seriously”

• Radio interview - 3AW Drive

FELGATE: Now, we've had a really unusual summer, I think, right around the country, but particularly here in Victoria. Started extremely wet and now we've got these extreme heat conditions. Are we, as a nation, prepared?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we know that the science told us that our climate was going to change and was changing and we've certainly seen that. There's been two different cyclone type events in Far North Queensland. You've had flooding on the Gold Coast. You've had fires in Western Australia. I was in Perth on the weekend and into the early part of this week, it was 43 degrees and the heat was quite extraordinary. The morning before last, we did a press conference at 8:30am and frankly, no one could stand not under shade at that time. So, it is a concern. It's one of the reasons why we need to take climate change very seriously and why we need to be a part of that global action. But as well, quite clearly, I met with the Australians of the Year yesterday and they are experts, of course, in finding cures to cancer, literally, particularly melanoma. And those lessons, one of the things that they said to me is that it is more important now than ever before that the slap on sunscreen and put on a hat and all that sort of care of staying out of the sun. They point out that a suntan is really just cells that are in distress and that we need to get away from the idea that a tan is so called healthy, which has been part of our culture. Certainly when I was growing up, that was the case. And we just need to, I think, as a community, as a society, talk about how we respond to the changes in our weather.

https://www.pm.gov.au/media/radio-interview-3aw-drive

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• Snowy Hydro’s 2.0 fortunes might finally be turning as drilling gets back on track

Each year on 4 December, Snowy Hydro invites a local Catholic priest to bless a small statue at the entrance to the tunnels of its giant 2.0 pumped hydro project to mark Saint Barbara, the patron saint of tunnellers and miners everywhere.

Those working underground are “reasonably superstitious people”, jokes Dennis Barnes, Snowy Hydro’s affable chief executive, as he leads a media tour of a project whose budget had soared sixfold to $12bn and won’t start supplying power to the grid until the end of 2028 or seven years later than original touted.

The Tantangara dam Snowy Hydro 2.0 site, where a tunnel boring machine hit soft ground in 2022 and was unable to continue.TBM Florence has tunnelled only 150 metres and is at a depth of 30 metres.A sinkhole has appeared in the ground above Florence, which has halted tunneling operations at this site in the Snowy Mountains. Tuesday 30th May 2023. Photograph by Mike Bowers. Story on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme by Peter Hannam. Guardian Australia.

The 2,500-tonne tunnel boring machine dubbed “Florence” ended its year-long stall in soft rock two days after the priestly visit from Father Mark Croker. It’s now picking up pace half a kilometre into a 16km tunnel near the upper dam at Tantangara, deep within the Snowy Mountains.

“Florence not moving was a lightning rod for the project … having its difficulties,” Barnes said at end of Wednesday’s tour. “All of the other work fronts just kept going when Florence was paused.”

Barnes, who took over as Snowy’s boss a year ago, also recast the deal with Italy’s WeBuild, the main contractor, making it “cost-plus” rather than a fixed price. While the move shifted most of the risk to Snowy, it ended the haggling “on every point”.

“We want everybody to be successful,” he said. “We want the contractor to be very successful.” Having WeBuild losing money “just isn’t a great place for anybody”.

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• Origin expands energy footprint across regional NSW

Origin Energy has expanded its footprint across regional NSW with the acquisition of a renewable energy developer.

Origin on Tuesday announced the purchase of Walcha Energy and its proposed Ruby Hills Wind Farm and Salisbury Solar Farm projects, which would bring more than 1300 megawatts of capacity to the electricity grid.

"The acquisition of Walcha Energy is consistent with Origin's ambition to lead the energy transition," head of energy supply and operations Greg Jarvis said.

The deal at an undisclosed cost follows the 2023 purchase of nearby sheep and beef property Warrane, and increases Origin's interests in the state government's New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).

"Origin's portfolio now includes several projects with promising wind and solar resources within the New England REZ, close to recently published transmission line investigation routes," Mr Jarvis said.

The proposed Salisbury project is about 10km south of Uralla, while Ruby Hills is 10km west of Walcha, in the southern part of the zone.

A lease arrangement was in place at Warrane to maintain and manage the property as an ongoing farm, which would continue during the development of a new project - the Northern Tablelands Wind Farm, Origin said.

The company said the immediate focus would be on engaging with landowners and the local community, and completing technical studies.

Local federal MP, the Nationals' Barnaby Joyce, is leading opposition to new energy projects and transmission lines in the area, saying he represents regional concerns.

But many farmers enjoy extra revenue from leasing land for wind turbines and solar panels to be installed, which provides an alternative income stream.

Origin has committed $1 billion to develop two large-scale batteries at the Eraring and Mortlake power stations, which located alongside existing high-voltage lines.

The company is also eyeing potential offshore wind projects in Victoria and off the Hunter coast in NSW.

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• New Australian environment laws would not stop widespread deforestation, organisations say

New national environment laws being developed by the Albanese government fail to address systemic flaws in the existing system and would continue to allow widespread deforestation, according to three organisations familiar with the plans.

Officials representing the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, have been sharing sections of draft conservation laws to be introduced this year in consultation meetings with conservation, business and other groups.

Three organisations involved in the meetings said the draft legislation did not go far enough to stop large-scale deforestation for agriculture and mining developments, or explicitly reference the need to halt the decline in threatened species, which has accelerated.

In a statement ahead of the latest consultation meeting on Thursday, Environmental Justice Australia, the Wilderness Society and Environment Centre Northern Territory called for the introduction of a “land-clearing trigger” so developments that planned to bulldoze significant pieces of land had to be assessed by federal authorities, and not left to the states and territories.

The organisations welcomed the government’s commitment to establish Environment Protection Australia – a national EPA – but said they were concerned after seeing the drafts that the environment minister of the day had discretion to “call in” decisions that should be left to independent experts at the EPA.

Danya Jacobs, a lawyer with Environmental Justice Australia, said the proposed legislation risked continuing a decades-long practice of environment being “undermined by political interference from the mining, logging, and agricultural sectors”.

“One of our primary concerns is around the potential for important decisions to be influenced by political agendas rather than scientific evidence,” she said.

Jacobs said the draft laws were silent on land-clearing. “It’s just not good enough. We’re in an extinction crisis and Australia is a deforestation hotspot,” she said.

The executive director of the Environment Centre NT, Kristy Howey, said a lack of federal oversight over land-clearing had resulted in NT’s savannah being bulldozed for cotton farming, other agriculture and mining. “The Albanese government has talked a big game when it comes to fixing the nature crisis, but as they currently stand the new laws won’t fix the rampant land clearing happening across Australia.”

A spokesperson for Plibersek said the government was undertaking a thorough consultation on what would be “strong new environment laws”, and that feedback from environment and business groups would be considered.

The three organisations’ concerns are consistent with some of those raised by nine environment groups in a letter to Plibersek in September. Community groups including Lock the Gate have previously called for the inclusion of a “climate lever” – wording that would allow the minister to consider a development’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions – and criticised a proposal that could allow projects to go ahead in return for proponents making “restoration payments”. The groups described this as a “pay to destroy” scheme.

The new laws are intended to replace the 25-year-old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. Plibersek promised sweeping law reform shortly after taking on the environment ministry in 2022. She released a five-yearly national state of the environment report that found Australia’s environment was in poor and deteriorating health, with at least 19 ecosystems showing signs of collapse or near collapse.