Thread: Keeping tabs on Australia"s newly elected Government

Conservation groups question Queensland commitment to renewables after hydro scheme scrapped

Conservation groups say the new Queensland government must quickly announce details of its alternative energy plans, after confirmation the new LNP administration will scrap the state’s attempts to build the “world’s largest” hydroelectricity project.

The premier, David Crisafulli, has confirmed the LNP would, as promised during the election campaign, end planning for a proposed 5GW Pioneer Burdekin pumped hydro scheme that would have constructed a massive energy storage dam in central Queensland.

The LNP criticised the project as “not feasible” and a “hoax”. It has said it will now “investigate opportunities for smaller, more manageable pumped hydro projects”.

Those could include privately funded projects, or government-backed construction.

The Queensland Conservation Council said the new government should release details of those plans as a priority, within the first 100 days of government, given how critical such storage projects were to meeting energy transition targets.

The Crisafulli government also committed to meeting Labor’s renewable energy targets, which require 50% of the state’s generation to be sourced by renewables by 2030; 70% by 2032; and 80% by 2035.

Long-duration storage would be required to meet those targets.

“It’s really important that the new state government is upfront about which pumped hydro projects they’re considering,” said Dave Copeman, the director of the Queensland Conservation Council.

“Queenslanders want to know they’re serious about getting on with the energy transition, but also, critically, we need to be able to assess the potential environmental impacts of their plans.”

Government sources and experts have said the Pioneer Burdekin site was ideal for pumped hydro storage, but the plan had met with significant local opposition.

Others have questioned the lack of detail, including the total cost, of the project.

Dr Dylan McConnell, an energy systems analyst at the University of New South Wales, told Guardian Australia during the election campaign that mega projects such as the Pioneer Burdekin would probably result in cost blowouts and delays.

He said several smaller projects could help “diversify the risk” of delays; but that the falling cost of batteries could mean that, by the time pumped hydro projects were built, “it could be cheaper to build chemical storage”.

Copeman said the QCC had sought more transparency from the previous state government about why it chose the Pioneer Burdekin project.

“Transparency is vital so Queenslanders can make an informed decision,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the debate about Pioneer Burdekin became a political one as opposed to one based on data.

“We absolutely support the energy transition because climate change is one of the biggest threats to our biodiversity and the places that Queenslanders love, but development needs to be well planned and done right.

“The worst outcome would be if the cumulative environmental impact and cost of building multiple smaller pumped hydro projects is significantly greater.

“We can’t know that until the LNP government is upfront about their plans.”

Crisafulli has said the new government may look to “partner with” proponents of smaller pumped hydro projects already in the pipeline, and to bring these online sooner than Pioneer Burdekin would have been.

The new government remains supportive of the 2GW Borumba pumped hydro project, which has progressed further than Pioneer Burdekin, and is already at the early works phase.

It is understood the state has already acquired more than 50 properties as part of its planning to build Pioneer Burdekin.

“We are working through the process [with landholders] … but it’s going to be what the people want,” the deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, said.

“I have asked the department and Queensland Hydro to … stop any progress on that project, which they have done.”

Coalition pressured to dump commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 after Donald Trump’s re-election

Pressure has re-emerged within the federal Coalition to dump its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 after Donald Trump’s re-election in the United States.

The Queensland Nationals MP Keith Pitt and Senate colleague Matt Canavan have spoken out in favour of climate and energy policies that replicate those of the Republican president-elect and are more dramatically different to those of the Albanese government.

“We need to consider our policies around net zero and their impact on the cost of living for every Australian and adopt policy that the Australian people can actually afford,” Pitt told Guardian Australia on Thursday.

He said Trump’s decisive victory provided clear guidance on the best way forward on climate change and other issues.

“Clearly president-elect Trump took bold positions on a number of policies and was successful,” he said. “We will be in a contest with an Albanese government, which, in my view, went too far, too fast and at too high a cost to the people on their climate policies and, if we want there to be a contest at the next election, we will need to have a policy position that is sufficiently different.”

He said any decision on a policy rethink would be “up to the shadow cabinet”.

But a spokesperson for the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, told Guardian Australia on Thursday that the policy on net zero stands.

“There’s no change in our position,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier on Thursday, the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, emphasised the importance of sticking to the net zero objective.

“I want to see Australia stay committed to net zero by 2050,” he told ABC Radio National. “I don’t anticipate any change in those commitments.”

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, also recommitted to the government’s existing policies despite Trump’s stated intention to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord.

“Even if you were a climate sceptic and didn’t believe any of the science and didn’t notice that there were more floods and more bushfires and more cyclones – it would still be good policy because it will produce the cheapest form of energy, not the most expensive, which we know as nuclear,” Albanese said on Thursday.

But he declined to commit to a 2035 emissions reduction target before the next federal election, saying the government was focused on 2030.

The government is not keen to reactivate the climate debate in Australia because the effects of climate change continue to generate anxiety in the community and Albanese is pushing a message of optimism about the future.

Along with pressing the importance of pursuing net zero, Birmingham also talked up the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy, saying it was taking “hard and difficult policy positions and decisions to be able to achieve that” and “moving into a space in the policy debate nobody has been game to go into before”.

“But doing so because we see it as necessary if you are to be credible in achieving net zero whilst protecting Australia’s industrial base in the future.”

Birmingham’s comments came after Canavan took to social media site X early on Thursday to condemn the net zero goal.

“The re-election of Trump means that we can all say what we think again,” he wrote. In a subsequent post he said Australians should “stop whining” about possible tariffs like “some kind of hopeless basket case” and “take charge of our own destiny for a change”.

“We should get out of the Paris climate agreement, dump net zero (which is dead anyway because of Trump) and unleash a New Age of Australian Energy Abundance,” he posted.

Canavan insisted Australia had all the natural resources to become “the richest country in the world” without any other help and could also become a “manufacturing powerhouse”.

“We just need to dig up our coal, drill for our gas and use our uranium and we will have the cheapest energy prices in the world.”

The Climate Council chief executive, Amanda McKenzie, emphasised the need for Australia to stay the course on the clean energy transition.

“During his first presidency, Trump tried to withdraw the US from climate diplomacy, but state and local governments powered ahead,” McKenzie said in a statement. “Countries and US states know the Trump playbook – and they’re determined to keep driving climate action forward.”

wrong thread

Matt Kean says Australia must take ‘strong and decisive action’ on climate crisis despite Trump re-election

The chair of the Climate Change Authority, Matt Kean, has declared Australia must take “strong and decisive action” to address the climate crisis despite Donald Trump’s return to the White House, arguing the world needs cheap renewable energy and the country can provide it.

Kean, a former News South Wales Liberal treasurer and energy minister, told Guardian Australia there were “enormous opportunities and benefits” in taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, no matter who was US president.

“We don’t know exactly what Trump will do, but climate change waits for no one and will spare no one and no country. That’s why we will continue to need to act - to take strong and decisive action to address this great challenge of our times,” he said.

“The world still needs cheap renewable energy, and the products that come with that, and Australia is in a very strong position to meet the world’s needs, and in doing so create huge jobs and prosperity for our country that we’ve never seen before.”

Kean said past evidence, including in Trump’s first term as president, showed states, territories and the private sector would continue to act. “I have no doubt that will continue to be the case,” he said.

His comments contrasted with those from the Nationals MP Keith Pitt and Senate colleague Matt Canavan, who argued the federal Coalition should dump its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 after Trump’s re-election.

“We need to consider our policies around net zero and their impact on the cost of living for every Australian and adopt policy that the Australian people can actually afford,” Pitt told Guardian Australia on Thursday.

He said Trump’s decisive victory provided clear guidance on the best way forward on climate change and other issues.

“Clearly president-elect Trump took bold positions on a number of policies and was successful,” he said. “We will be in a contest with an Albanese government, which, in my view, went too far, too fast and at too high a cost to the people on their climate policies and, if we want there to be a contest at the next election, we will need to have a policy position that is sufficiently different.”

He said any decision on a policy rethink would be “up to the shadow cabinet”.

Earlier on Thursday, the Coalition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Simon Birmingham, emphasised the importance of sticking to the net zero objective.

“I want to see Australia stay committed to net zero by 2050,” he told ABC Radio National. “I don’t anticipate any change in those commitments.”

Anthony Albanese also recommitted to the government’s existing policies despite Trump’s stated intention to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement.

“Even if you were a climate sceptic and didn’t believe any of the science and didn’t notice that there were more floods and more bushfires and more cyclones – it would still be good policy because it will produce the cheapest form of energy, not the most expensive, which we know as nuclear,” the prime minister said on Thursday.

But he declined to commit to a 2035 emissions reduction target before the next federal election, saying the government was focused on 2030. The Climate Change Authority is preparing advice to the government on a 2035 emissions reduction target, but it will not be ready until next year.

Initial advice from the authority found a 65-75% cut below 2005 levels would be “ambitious, but could be achievable”.

The government is not keen to reactivate the climate debate in Australia because the effects of climate change continue to generate anxiety in the community and Albanese is pushing a message of optimism about the future.

Along with pressing the importance of pursuing net zero, Birmingham also talked up the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy, saying it was taking “hard and difficult policy positions and decisions to be able to achieve that” and “moving into a space in the policy debate nobody has been game to go into before”.

“But doing so because we see it as necessary if you are to be credible in achieving net zero whilst protecting Australia’s industrial base in the future.”

Birmingham’s comments came after Canavan took to the social media site X early on Thursday to condemn the net zero goal.

“The re-election of Trump means that we can all say what we think again,” he wrote. In a subsequent post he said Australians should “stop whining” about possible tariffs like “some kind of hopeless basket case” and “take charge of our own destiny for a change”.

“We should get out of the Paris climate agreement, dump net zero (which is dead anyway because of Trump) and unleash a New Age of Australian Energy Abundance,” he posted.

Canavan insisted Australia had all the natural resources to become “the richest country in the world” without any other help and could also become a “manufacturing powerhouse”.

“We just need to dig up our coal, drill for our gas and use our uranium and we will have the cheapest energy prices in the world.”

The Climate Council chief executive, Amanda McKenzie, emphasised the need for Australia to stay the course on the clean energy transition.

“During his first presidency, Trump tried to withdraw the US from climate diplomacy, but state and local governments powered ahead,” McKenzie said in a statement. “Countries and US states know the Trump playbook – and they’re determined to keep driving climate action forward.”

But a spokesperson for the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, told Guardian Australia on Thursday that the policy on net zero stands. “There’s no change in our position,” the spokesperson said.

Chris Bowen on Trump, science and coal: ‘We’re living climate change. What we’re trying to do is avoid the worst of it’

In Spain, more than 200 people have been killed after the deadliest floods in the country’s modern history. Australia is heating faster than the global average, meaning more extreme heat events, longer fire seasons, increasingly intense heavy rain and sea level rise. And globally, this year is highly likely to be the hottest on record, beating the current title holder, 2023. For some, this escalating scientific evidence can be alarming. But the person in charge of Australia’s response to the climate crisis says that is not a word he would choose.

“If alarm implies concern, sure. But alarm implying surprise? No,” says Chris Bowen, the country’s climate change and energy minister.

“We’re living climate change. What we’re now trying to do is avoid the worst of it,” Bowen says.

“Report after report, temperature records tumbling, natural disasters increasingly unnatural – that’s why we keep going. That’s what drives me. It gets me out of bed every day. So perhaps alarmed is the wrong word. Disturbed, maybe. But, you know, not surprised.”

Bowen is speaking to Guardian Australia shortly before a US presidential election where polls indicate a 50-50 chance voters will elect a candidate who calls climate change a “hoax” and who would lead an administration intent on gutting clean energy and science programs and again pulling the US out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Six days after the US election, thousands of delegates from nearly 200 countries will land in the Russia-aligned petrostate of Azerbaijan for Cop29, an annual UN climate summit. Bowen will be at the centre of that meeting, having been invited to help lead negotiations on what is considered its most important work – setting a new finance goal to help the developing world.

What will a Trump win mean?

Speaking in his ministerial office in the Sydney CBD, Bowen acknowledges the election result will be seismic, and will shape the fortnight-long talks starting in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku on 11 November.

Asked for his view on what a Donald Trump victory would mean, he is cautious but clear: the Albanese government and the Biden administration have been “closely aligned in policy and personal terms” and “obviously, having a United States administration with a very forward leaning climate policy is a good thing”.

He also gives three reasons why he believes a second Trump administration would be unlikely to live up to the former president’s anti-climate rhetoric on the climate crisis.

“Firstly, they are the United States. So the state functions are very important. And perhaps unlike 2016, where the result came as a surprise, if it is a Trump administration people are doing more preparation for it,” he says.

“Secondly, it’s hard to legislate in the United States, but it’s also hard to un-legislate. So the Inflation Reduction Act [which includes an extraordinary US$370bn in clean energy support] is the law of the land and will remain the law of the land unless it gets repealed, which will be very difficult to do. And thirdly, the private sector can help. In the United States, regardless of federal mandates, they know [climate action] is good business.

“Will the dynamics of Cop be different depending on who’s president? Of course they will. But does the rest of the world just walk away if the United States president is Donald Trump? No.”

Within climate activist circles, there is an expectation that if Kamala Harris wins, she may quickly set a 2035 emissions reduction target and other countries may follow. If Trump wins, many countries, including Australia, are likely to delay and recalibrate before setting their 2035 commitments, which are due next year.

Bowen says Labor will set a target based on “what we think we can achieve and what our contribution should be under the science” – and what others are doing. Initial advice from the Climate Change Authority found a target of up to a 75% cut below 2005 levels would be “ambitious, but could be achievable”.

According to a recent UN Environment Programme analysis, current national commitments would lead to only a 2.6% emissions reduction below 2019 levels by 2030. It is far short of what countries have agreed is necessary: a 43% reduction over that timeframe and a 60% cut by 2035.

Bowen says he understands “to a degree” why this big discrepancy makes people cynical, but argues the summits are important, not least because they send a signal to governments and investors marshalling trillions of dollars. He says there was genuine progress last year, including a non-binding agreement the world should transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewable energy by 2030.

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Extra: Good article

The Australians who sounded the climate alarm 55 years ago: ‘I’m surprised others didn’t take it as seriously’

Australia will join other countries at Cop29 to discuss the escalating climate crisis, but some political and scientific leaders have been talking about it for decades

Burst of renewable energy commitments in September quarter

We’re heard various warnings about the relative lack of new renewable energy investments in the past year or so – at least if we’re to manage the exit of aging coal-fired power plants and meet our clean energy targets.

The September quarter, it turns out, was one of the most promising quarters for some time, the Clean Energy Council reports today.

In the July-September months, more than 1,400 megawatts of new wind and solar farms worth $3.3bn reached financial sign-off, the best since the end of 2022. CEC chief Kane Thornton said:

If we sustain the level of investment for new wind and solar power plants which we have seen in the third quarter of this year, we can get back on track to achieving Australia’s target of 82% renewable energy generation by 2030.

Most of the new projects were either onshore wind (offshore not actually happening – yet) or big batteries. Rooftop solar has tended to make solar farms a bit less attractive.

According to the council, there are 89 renewable electricity generation projects that have either reached financial commitment or are under construction, representing 13.9 gigawatts of capacity in the pipeline. There are also 49 storage projects working their way forward from financial commitment, equivalent to 9.7GW/ 24.3GW-hours in capacity/energy output.

While that sounds good, it’s notable that not a lot of capacity has lately come online. The council notes the September quarter saw just three renewable electricity generation projects, totalling 168MW of new capacity, were actually commissioned in Q3 2024.

We’ll get the summer readiness report soon from the Australian Energy Market Operator, and it won’t be surprising to hear we may face a few tight spots particularly if there are extended heatwaves and coal-fired plants drop out for unscheduled reasons.

The Guardian

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Fifty-year extension for one of Australia’s biggest CO2 emitters likely after WA ditches emissions-reduction rules

The Western Australian Labor government appears all but certain to give one of Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters the green light to operate until 2070 after it announced it would abolish state emissions-reduction requirements.

Scientists have warned the proposal to extend the life of the North West Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup Peninsula in the country’s remote north-west is linked to the development of at least three major gas fields and could ultimately result in billions of tonnes of climate pollution being released into the atmosphere.

The WA Environment Protection Authority recommended in 2022 that the state approve a 50-year extension for the plant, which is run by the oil and gas company Woodside, as long as it progressively reduced its operating emissions. It could do that by making cuts onsite or paying for carbon offsets.

More than 750 organisations and individuals lodged appeals against the recommendation – a record for the state – citing its contribution to the climate crisis and potential damage to Indigenous rock art. The WA appeals convenor has been considering the objections since mid 2022.

But the WA government last month announced it would change rules so that the EPA would no longer regulate emissions from development proposals that released significant climate pollution.

The WA climate change minister, Reece Whitby, then wrote to people who lodged appeals against the North West Shelf extension, giving them under 8 November to respond.

Climate activists said the implicit message of the letter was that the state government planned to effectively abandon the years-long EPA process considering how to deal with emissions from the plant.

The Conservation Council of WA’s executive director, Jess Beckerling, said total emissions from the extension of fossil fuel operations on the Burrup Hub could reach 6bn tonnes once the gas was exported and burned overseas.

“The WA government has just stripped itself of the ability to effectively regulate the impact of climate change from the biggest fossil fuel projects in the country,” she said.

The WA government’s rationale for the change is that emissions released directly from developments within Australia – but not those released overseas – are covered by a federal government emissions policy, the safeguard mechanism. The extension also needs approval under federal conservation law.

A state government spokesperson said it was “focused on removing duplication that doesn’t deliver any additional environmental benefit”.

“Our expectation is the requirements for projects to reduce emissions through the safeguard mechanism will cumulatively result in the same if not stronger action on emissions,” they said. “It does not change our commitment to working with all sectors of the economy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.”

But Piers Verstegen of WA-based Climate Safe Solutions said the change would likely lead to higher emissions as the state EPA’s recommendations could lead to more stringent cuts after 2030 than under the safeguard mechanism.

The safeguard mechanism requires Australia’s 215 biggest industrial emitting sites to cut their emissions intensity by 4.9% a year until 2030, but export facilities such as the North West Shelf could apply for a lower rate. The rate of emissions reduction for each site has not yet been released. Required cuts after 2030 will be set in 2027.

The state EPA’s recommendations in 2022 said the site should have to reduce its emissions progressively, with limits set in five-year blocks, to reach net zero by 2050. It said companies were expected to demonstrate that they were acting to first avoid, then reduce and finally offset emissions.

Guardian Australia asked the WA government if it had an analysis that showed there would be no greater climate impact once its regulations were removed and if that analysis was publicly available. It did not directly answer the question.

It said its decision followed a review of environmental approval processes and constitutional advice from the state’s solicitor general. Constitutional lawyers have responded that there was nothing to legally prevent state governments legislating to cut emissions.

The federal legislation governing the safeguard mechanism says it is “not intended to exclude or limit the operation of a law of a state or territory that is capable of operating concurrently” with it.

The removal of state emissions regulations was welcomed by Woodside, Australia’s biggest oil and gas company. It called on other states to remove climate regulations.

The Greens MP Brad Pettitt said the change showed the WA government was “not even pretending to try to reduce WA’s emissions any more”.

WA is the only Australian state without a 2030 emissions reduction target, and the only state in which climate pollution has increased over the past 20 years. National data says climate pollution in the five eastern states fell by at least 27% between 2005 and 2022 while rising 8% in WA, largely due to the state’s expanding gas export industry.

Pettitt said the state’s policy “can only have been influenced by one thing – big gas corporations who will save millions under the lower emissions standards required by the federal safeguard mechanism”.

“Western Australia’s sycophantic support of gas and lack of climate action is dragging down the whole country’s climate ambition and also slowing the uptake of renewable energy in Asia,” he said. “This is a globally irresponsible decision.”

Beckerling said: “The North West Shelf extension is Australia’s biggest climate decision and the WA government is trying to wash its hands of its responsibility to hold Woodside to account.”

Coalition ‘not contemplating’ walking away from net zero by 2050

The Liberal senator Jon Duniam said the Coalition remains committed to its net zero commitment by 2050.

We’ve said we remain committed there, and we are going to continue to do things that are in our interests, not necessarily follow suit with the United States. There are some things they do which makes sense, there are others which are suited to them and not to Australia.

Several Nationals backbenchers have suggested Coalition support for net zero by 2050 should be reconsidered, and Senator Matt Canavan has said Australia should withdraw from the Paris agreement. But Duniam said the Coalition’s key policies were not being reconsidered:

We are currently committed to, and as far as I’m aware, remain committed to net zero by 2050 – that’s not the policy in question.

What we need to do is, while we seek to do what we can to achieve those goals, which – including this government, doesn’t seem to be occurring too positively – is ensure that Australians don’t pay inordinate amounts of the things they need to do every day – electricity, getting about in their vehicles, so making sure that the goods so bad at the supermarket are not at increased cost.

So there are a range of things we need to do there, but walking away from net zero as a standalone policy is not something that we are contemplating.

The Guardian

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NSW government releases new renewables planning guidelines

New South Wales has been the laggard among the states in terms of approving new renewable energy projects for a while, with one industry study last year finding a new wind farm took an average of 3,488 days (almost a decade) to get the nod.

By contrast, in Queensland the average time to assess a windfarm was just 190 days, 384 days in Victoria and 533 in South Australia, that report found.

After much urging and feedback by would-be investors, the government has issued its new guidelines that it hopes will draw more investment into the state at a pace commensurate with the exit of coal-fired power plants (and the need to carbonise).

We haven’t waded through the multiple side reports (such as on wind, solar, community benefits sharing, etc) yet but will do when time permits.

The fine print that investors will look at will include how much setbacks will be needed, say, for wind turbines to minimise their visual impacts, to what extent “hypothetical dwellings” can be used by neighbours to limit turbine or solar panel locations nearby, and so on.

The Minns government, for instance, touts the prospect of “over $400m” in extra funds slowing to “support community and local government initiatives” from the changes.

The “suggested rate” a year includes $850 per megawatt for a solar farm, $1,050/megawatt yearly for a windfarm and $150/Mwhour hour per annum for stand-alone big batteries in rural zones. These sums would be indexed to the consumer price index.

That sounds good but here too its success will hinge a lot on locals either getting their mitts on the money or at least getting a say on what local governments do with any extra cash.

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...08ef6f10472a56

Australia urged to increase climate goal after UK announces ambitious 81% reduction target

The UK’s announcement of an 81% emissions cut below 1990 levels by 2035 shows the Australian government should set an ambitious climate target that will quickly drive investment and create clean industries, experts say.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, was praised by campaigners and experts after confirming the pledge at the Cop29 UN climate summit in Azerbaijan, though they said it would need to be backed by clear plans. The UK is one of the first larger countries to announce a 2035 target before a UN deadline next February.

The UK target translates to a 78% cut below 2005 levels, the benchmark against which Australia measures its climate goals.

The Albanese government has delayed announcing its target, possibly until after the next federal election, saying it is waiting for a recommendation from the Climate Change Authority. The authority chair, Matt Kean, says its advice has been pushed back to consider the ramifications of Donald Trump – a climate denier – winning the US presidential election.

Initial advice from the authority earlier this year suggested a target of at least 65% and up to 75% would be ambitious, but achievable.

Kean told the ABC on Wednesday it was good to see high ambition from the UK because it would focus “everyone’s attention on what’s possible”.

Erwin Jackson, policy director with the Investor Group on Climate Change, said Australia should follow the UK – which accepted a recommendation from that country’s Climate Change Committee – in tying its target to independent advice.

He said Australia was better placed than many other countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions at relatively low cost as it still used a lot of coal and that could largely be replaced with renewable energy.

“The UK and Australia are different economies,” he said. “Australia is blessed with some of the world’s best and cheapest renewable energy resources and any target we put forward needs to be making sure we’re taking advantage of that considerable advantage and going to the highest possible ambition.”

Jackson said people often viewed a climate target as an abstract commitment, but it mattered because it was “essentially an investment signal”. “The fundamental point is if you want to be prosperous as an economy you have to have a strong target because if you don’t investors will take their capital elsewhere,” he said.

I can't recall seeing fire stories from Oz yet. Fire season must have arrived.

Australian PM commits new funding for clean energy projects

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed funding for two clean energy projects on the country's east coast.

Albanese on Tuesday announced over 50 million Australian dollars (32.8 million U.S. dollars) in combined federal government funding for the projects in the east coast states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria.

The package includes 33.3 million AUD (21.8 million USD) to establish the Net Zero Manufacturing Center of Excellence in the NSW city of Newcastle, with the state government also contributing 28.1 million AUD (18.4 million USD) to the project.

Albanese said in a statement that the center will play a pivotal role in training Australian workers in the advanced skills that will be required to transition mining, energy and manufacturing industries to a clean energy economy.

The remaining 17 million AUD (11.1 million USD) will go towards Australia's first commercial concentrated solar thermal heat plant in the northeastern Victorian city of Wodonga.

The project will expand the application of solar power in Australia beyond electricity generation to heat generation.

According to the government, the 18-megawatt (MW) thermal plant will halve the use of gas by the manufacturing facility where it is being built.

The federal funding for the Wodonga project will come from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which was established in 2012 to boost the supply and competitiveness of Australian renewable energy projects

Solar and wind projects a boon for farmers: report

Farmers will receive around $1bn by the year 2030 for hosting large-scale wind and solar farm on their land, according to a new report from the Clean Energy Council and Farmers for Climate Action.

The Billions in the Bush report suggests regional communities will receive another $200m through community benefits funds and local clean-energy schemes.

Those payments to landholders are estimated to rise to between $7.7bn and $9.7bn by 2050, and regional community contributions to $2.2bn.

The Farmers for Climate Action CEO, Natalie Collard, said renewable energy projects were making farmland more productive.

Australia’s clean, green farmers have been hosting clean energy since the windmill was invented. Hosting modern clean energy helps our farmers continue their traditions. Farmers that choose to host renewables are farming sheep and cattle around wind turbines and under solar panels, creating a double income from the land.

The two organisations are seeking to improve understanding of the economic opportunities for landholders in the clean energy transition, in the face of pushback in some regional areas against solar and wind projects in particular.

Solar panels at solar farm on the northern outskirts of Canberra.

The Guardian

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Australia accused of ‘exporting climate destruction’ on tiny Pacific neighbours with massive gas expansion plans

Pacific governments at a UN climate summit are criticising Australia’s plans for a massive gas industry expansion in Western Australia, saying it could result in 125 times more greenhouse gas emissions than their island nations release in a year.

As the Cop29 summit in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku begins its second week, representatives from Vanuatu and Tuvalu have called on Australia to stop approving new fossil fuel developments, including a proposal to extend the life of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas facility until 2070.

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change, said Australia was “not acting in good faith” when it stood alongside Pacific leaders on the global stage and promoted its climate credentials while continuing to approve coal and gas projects.

“As the world’s third largest fossil fuel exporter, the Australian government is exporting climate destruction overseas, including to Pacific nations like Vanuatu, who experience the most devastating impacts of the climate crisis, despite contributing the least,” he said. “This is climate injustice.”

Regenvanu urged Australia to do more to address accelerating climate impacts and back up an agreement at the Cop28 summit in Dubai last year that the world needed to transition away from fossil fuels.

Maina Talia, Tuvalu’s climate change minister, said pursuing efforts to limit global heating to an average 1.5C – a headline goal of the landmark 2015 Paris climate deal – was “not just a number” but a “lifeline for Pacific communities facing rising seas, accelerating extreme weather disasters and the erosion of our cultures”.

“We will continue to keep industrialised countries accountable for their actions,” he said. “Our future lies solely in their hands.”

Paris agreement is working, Australian minister tells Cop29, but much deeper cuts needed by 2035

The Australian climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has declared the landmark Paris agreement “is working” as it had brought the world back from “the brink of catastrophic 4C warming”, but argued countries must set the most ambitious emissions targets possible for 2035 to limit worsening global heating.

Giving Australia’s national statement on the conference floor at the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan, he also pledged A$50m (US$32.5m) towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown.

The comments about emissions reduction targets will raise expectations that the Albanese government will substantially ramp up its commitments when a new emissions target is set next year.

Initial advice from the Australian Climate Change Authority earlier this year suggested the country could achieve a cut of up to 75% below 2005 levels by 2035. The authority’s final recommendation – and the government’s announcement of its target – has been delayed, possibly until after the federal election due by May.

Bowen told Cop29 that a global stocktake of climate progress at Cop28 in Dubai last year showed that “we have come a long way” from the brink of a catastrophic 4C of heating before the Paris agreement was signed in 2015 to what is expected to be between 2C and 3C on the current trajectory.

Scientists say this degree of heating above pre-industrial levels would still lead to disastrous heatwaves and extreme weather events that would devastate lives, livelihoods and nature.

Bowen said the stocktake showed “we’ve come far, but not far enough”, and urged the world to listen to Pacific island nations, where climate change was “not seen as subject for negotiation, but an existential and security threat”.

“This is a message that the world needs to hear, and a reality that the world needs to see,” he said. “That’s why we are bidding to co-host Cop31 in partnership with our Pacific family.”

On the new climate commitments due next year – known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs – Bowen said “we must all strengthen efforts and deliver our highest possible ambition” to accelerate global climate action and the goal of limiting heating to 1.5C alive.

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Australia’s $50m Cop29 pledge ‘nowhere near our fair share’, Greens senator says

Earlier this morning, we reported that Australia has pledged $50m towards a global loss and damage fund to help the world’s most vulnerable people to repair the damage from climate breakdown, at the Cop29 summit.

The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi says this funding is a start, but “nowhere near the fair share for a country which is one of the largest exporters of coal and gas”.

This pledge risks becoming a token gesture if the Albanese government continues to approve new coal and gas mines that will keep exacerbating climate driven disasters which results in the loss and damage suffered by the Global South.

The climate crisis is having a severe impact on Pacific nations who did nothing to create this disaster, yet bear the burden of the damage caused. Pacific nations need real and strong action from countries like Australia – that means ending new coal and gas, not pouring fuel on fire by opening the floodgates for fossil fuel projects.

The Guardian

Victoria to build $370m state-owned solar farm and battery

The Victorian government has announced it will spend $370m to build a massive solar farm and battery in Horsham, which will be able to power more than 50,000 homes and be wholly state-owned.

The premier, Jacinta Allan, visited the city in Victoria’s west to announce the solar farm today as the second investment of the state’s State Electricity Commission.

At the 2022 state election, the Labor government committed to reviving the SEC, which for decades was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, transmission, distribution and supply before it was privatised in the 1990s.

Allan said the solar farm would be the first 100% government-owned energy generation project since the commission was privatised in the 1990s.

The Guardian

Greens drop climate trigger demand in attempt to restart Nature Positive talks with Labor

The Greens have dropped their demand for a climate trigger to be incorporated in the government’s stalled Nature Positive legislation, indicating they are now prepared to pass the bills in return for an Australia-wide ban on native forest logging alone.

The party has previously refused to support Labor’s legislation, insisting that both a climate trigger and a forest-logging ban must be included.

But in the lead-up to the final parliamentary sitting week of the year – and after faring worse than they anticipated in the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland elections – the Greens’ key Senate negotiators are to announce a compromise position to try to restart negotiations with the government.

With the Coalition and some crossbenchers continuing to oppose them, the government cannot get the bills passed without Greens support.

The Greens Senate leader, Sarah Hanson-Young, accused the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, of bowing to pressure from the resources sector in his refusal to countenance a climate trigger.

“The PM might not be willing to budge but the Greens are if it’s in the best interests of our environment,” Hanson-Young told Guardian Australia. “For this reason, we have offered the Albanese government passage of their Nature Positive bills in return for real action to save our native forests and critical habitat.”

The three Nature Positive bills would create an environmental protection authority and a data-gathering body, and increase penalties and enforcement powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Bowen takes aim at '10 years of denial and delay' after Coalition targets Labor over rising emissions

The manager of opposition business, Paul Fletcher, has asked how the public can take the government seriously on climate change when emissions have gone up?

The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, takes aim at the opposition for “presid[ing] over 10 years of denial and delay [and not telling] the Australian people what [its] 2030 target is [and saying] we should rely more on coal and gas while we wait decades for nuclear to come forward”.

As the prime minister has foreshadowed, this week we will release the annual climate change statement in accordance with the act. That is the best practice in terms of transparency and accountability when it comes to emission reductions.

I will release the Climate Change Authority annual progress report, which I have received, and will table in the house …

I look forward to the opposition’s detailed policy response, which will outline – no doubt – full costings of their nuclear plan, no doubt, the emissions impact of their nuclear plan …

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...086501868e8fcd

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Support for nuclear power will evaporate at next election, Chris Bowen predicts

Support for nuclear power is likely to evaporate once Australians face a clear choice at the next election and realise the Coalition’s policy would mean relying more on old coal plants and increased risk of blackouts, Chris Bowen says.

The climate change and energy minister said that while some polling had suggested some voters were open to nuclear plants being allowed in Australia surveys had also consistently found they preferred renewable energy.

“Every bit of research I’ve seen, public and private, says that when shown details and given a choice between nuclear and other forms of energy, nuclear fares very, very badly,” he said. “If you look at the popularity of different forms of energy, it’s solar, wind, gas, daylight, coal, nuclear, in that order, every single time.”

The Coalition has named seven sites where it says it would eventually replace coal-fired power plants with nuclear plants but not how much this would cost. Multiple energy analysts argue nuclear energy would be more expensive than other options and a nuclear industry would not be possible in Australia until after 2040. The bulk of the country’s coal plants are scheduled to close in the 2030s.

The opposition has suggested it would limit the rollout of large-scale renewable energy – it has criticised Labor’s goal of 82% renewable energy by 2030 – and bridge the gap by keeping ageing coal plants running longer and using more gas-fired power.

It has not yet said what type of gas plants this means. With nuclear banned, gas is the most expensive form of electricity in the national electricity market and it use is largely restricted to “peaking” power turned on only when needed. It provided less than 3% of electricity in the national grid over the past month.

The chair of the Australian Energy Regulator, Claire Savage, told a parliamentary inquiry she did not believe that nuclear plants could be built in enough time to cover the closure of coal-fired power plants. More than a quarter of the coal power capacity in the national grid was offline on the day she gave evidence due to planned and unplanned outages.

Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Campaigns In Pennsylvania<br>LITITZ, PENNSYLVANIA - NOVEMBER 03: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Lancaster Airport on November 03, 2024 in Lititz, Pennsylvania. Trump begins his day campaigning in battleground state of Pennsylvania, where 19 electoral votes up for grabs, where a recent New York Times and Siena College polls show a tie with Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump will head to North Carolina and Georgia where Harris continues to lead in the polls. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

A Guardian Essential poll was roughly split between people who considered it “an attempt to extend the life of gas and limit investment in large-scale renewables” and those who said it was “serious, and should be considered as a part of the nation’s energy future”.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, Bowen said some Australians were open to nuclear energy but he was not concerned as there was a difference between people being open to it and agreeing to it.

“When you say to people, whether it’s in a formal market research setting or a punter in the street setting, ‘I don’t object to nuclear, morally … but I object to it because it’s so expensive, but probably even more importantly, because it takes so long, and we don’t have time if we’re going to wait the 20 to 30 years it would take, and that means more coal in the system and coal in the system longer, and even the Liberals aren’t proposing to build new coal-fired power stations so they’re just going to rely on these old ones longer, and that’s blackouts’ – then the support or openness evaporates.”

The Coalition’s climate change and energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, has promised more details of the opposition’s proposal before the end of the year.

He has rejected claims there would be a risk of an electricity shortage under its plan and said government and clean energy industry analysis of how much it would cost were inaccurate as they were not based on its full policy.

Bowen says Australia is meeting climate targets

The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, has been making the rounds on breakfast programs as the government claims it is on track to meet its legislated 43% emissions reduction target by 2030.

As Adam Morton reports, the government said annual emissions projections suggest national climate pollution would be at least 42.6% less than 2005 levels by the end of the decade, compared with 37% last year.

The Guardian

‘Silent majority’ of Australian farmers found to support renewable energy transition

Seventy per cent of regional Australians in renewable energy zones support the development of renewable energy projects on local farmland, a new survey has found.

The survey, conducted for lobby group Farmers for Climate Action, found that support for renewable energy developments increased to 73% for people connected to the farming industry, but was conditional on concerns around consultation, project design and decommissioning being met.

Just 17% of respondents said they opposed renewable energy developments, with 8% strongly opposed.

The Farmers for Climate Action chief executive, Natalie Collard, said the results showed the “silent majority” of farmers support the renewable transition, despite an increasingly loud campaign by anti-renewable voices.

Collard said the survey, which included a poll of 1,000 people and a smaller focus group discussion among 19 farmers, including “a lot of detractors”, showed that those who vocally opposed renewable energy developments and those who said they would support them on their land shared the same concerns.

Those concerns were the potential impact of a project on their ongoing use of the land for farming, a fear they would be left with the costs of decommissioning and a general distrust of developers. Whether that translated to a broader opposition to all renewable energy developments depended on the individual’s general trust in government to hold developers to account, Collard said.

Anti-renewable campaigners have marched on Canberra twice and held packed community meetings throughout New South Wales and Queensland, backed by National party politicians and a pledge by the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, that the Coalition would cap renewable energy investment if elected.

Collard said most of the concerns raised could be addressed through the government introducing national standards for the conduct of developers, including guidelines around decommissioning and consultation.

Decommissioning plans, which are already required as part of the approvals process, should be made readily available on developers’ websites, and developers should also use social media to better engage with the community, she said.

Land use concerns could be ameliorated by giving farmers a say in project design, the survey found.

“We know that a lot of developers are already acting to a high standard,” Collard said. “They are not the ones that are letting the sector down.

“Some developers are opting to pay the fine rather than do community consultation. That should not even be an option.”

Farmers who supported renewable energy developments said the income security from hosting a project– which averages $40,000 per wind turbine per annum or $1,200 per hectare for a solar farm – could “drought proof” their business.

A livestock and cropping farmer from NSW told the focus group: “The biggest benefit would be a constant source of income regardless of seasonal conditions and livestock prices. This is very important to me, particularly given the current returns in agriculture.”

Collard said an analysis by the Clean Energy Council found large-scale wind and solar projects could deliver up to $11.7bn to farmers in landholder payments by 2050.

“It’s incredible to me that there are some voices in agriculture that are prepared to take away choice from farmers who want to host renewables and make money from it,” she said. “That’s something I have never seen in Australian agriculture before and I am just shocked that it’s not held to account.”

Chris Bowen outlines 'three fatal errors' with Coalition's nuclear plan

Chris Bowen says the Coalition’s nuclear costings are “riddled with fundamental errors [and] heroic assumptions” and have three fatal errors.

Firstly, the costings assume Australians will need less electricity in 205o than suggested by Aemo, he says.

This is a fatal error in their costings and it is a dangerous error because it is risky, it runs the risk of leaving Australians short of the energy they need.

Secondly, the Coalition rejected the work of CSIRO and Aemo and have “assumed an ongoing cost of $30 a megawatt hour when it comes to nuclear.”

Aemo and CSIRO say to recoup the capital cost of nuclear, that would need a price of $145 to $238 a megawatt hour. That’s a big difference.

And thirdly, the Coalition has assumed their plan would need less transmission.

On page 45 of their modelling, they assume savings because of fewer transmission lines. They haven’t outlined what transmission lines they will cancel – presumably not the project Energy Connect, which is well under construction. Presumably not Marinus Link connecting Tasmania and the mainland, which Peter Dutton has previously said he’s committed to. Presumably not HumeLink, which connects Snowy 2.0 to the grid.

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