Thread: Keeping tabs on Australia"s newly elected Government

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Greens deputy leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi has launched legal action against One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson over a tweet telling Senator Faruqi to "pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan".


The tweet from Senator Pauline Hanson
was in response to comments made by the Greens deputy leader following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

Mehreen Faruqi sues Pauline Hanson over '''piss off back to Pakistan''' tweet | SBS News


Those comments were ...

In a social media post just hours after Her Majesty's death was announced, Ms Faruqi said she can’t “mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.


The Senator's tweet prompted outrage given how soon it was published after Her Majesty's death.
Speaking to SkyNews.com.au, the Institute of Public Affairs’ Gideon Rozner said the "unhinged" rant was embarrassing for an Australian Senator.
“Mehreen Faruqi, Adam Bandt and the Greens should give it a rest. Just take the day off,” he said.


“Mehreen Faruqi’s unhinged and pig-ignorant contributions would be embarrassing for a second-year arts student, let alone a federal senator.

“The Greens’ perennial nihilism and historical revisionism may appeal to the 10 per cent of Australians who vote for them, but will always be toxic for the mainstream.”

‘Unhinged and insensitive’: Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi slammed over ‘appalling’ tweet claiming Queen lead ‘racist empire’ | Sky News Australia

“We have decided to focus on the existing 20GW pipeline of assets as a much faster way to achieve those goals and take Australia closer to a carbon-free future,” he said.

• Mike Cannon-Brookes wins control of Sun Cable solar project from Andrew Forrest

Mike Cannon-Brookes has prevailed over Andrew Forrest in a billionaires’ battle for control of Sun Cable, an ambitious development promising to transmit solar-generated electricity from the Northern Territory outback to Singapore.

Cannon-Brookes and Forrest had been involved in a bidding process for the $30bn-plus project after they fell out over its future direction and the company, also called Sun Cable, went into voluntary administration.

The administrators, FTI Consulting, announced on Friday that a consortium led by Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures and including Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners had been successful in acquiring the company’s assets. Forrest’s Squadron Energy said it did not submit a final binding bid.

In a statement, the Grok-led consortium said it believed the Sun Cable project “had the potential to be a nation-building project for Australia”. It said it would “deep dive with management over the coming weeks” before saying more about the project’s design and development.

“We believe Sun Cable can achieve long-term success by delivering globally competitive electrons to Australia and the world,” the consortium said. “We will continue to pursue customer off-take agreements in Singapore and Darwin, and collaborate with the Singaporean and Northern Territory governments to achieve this mission.”

Described by the company as “the world’s largest solar infrastructure network”, the Sun Cable proposal has included building a 20-gigawatt solar farm and between 36 and 42 gigawatt-hours of battery storage capacity at the Newcastle Waters cattle station about 750km south of Darwin. It would help power Darwin and connect to Singapore via a 4,200km underwater cable and also provide electricity to Indonesia.

Cannon-Brookes, who runs Grok Ventures as a private investment firm with his wife, Annie, and made his fortune as a founder of the tech company Atlassian, said the announcement was “a big step in the right direction”.

“We’ve always believed in the possibilities Sun Cable presents in exporting our boundless sunshine and what it could mean for Australia,” he said. “It’s time to stretch our country’s ambition. We need to take big swings if we are going to be a renewable energy superpower. So swing we will.”

The project went into administration in January after the billionaires disagreed over whether to continue with the Singapore cable part of the development, known as Australia-Asia Powerlink. Forrest’s Squadron Energy no longer supported the cable due to concerns about its economic viability and opposed a plan for further equity raising. Grok later made a successful proposal to provide Sun Cable with $65m in interim funding while ownership was resolved.

Forrest said while he did not participate in the final stage of the bidding process, he was delighted that other investors including Grok were “playing a role in tackling global warming, by replacing fossil fuel investment with green energy projects”.

He said continuing with Sun Cable “did not align with Squadron’s strategic goals” as his company was “already working to deliver 30% of the renewable energy required to meet the federal government’s target of 82% renewables by 2030”.

“We have decided to focus on the existing 20GW pipeline of assets as a much faster way to achieve those goals and take Australia closer to a carbon-free future,” he said.

“We remain unconvinced of the commercial viability of the Australia-Asia Powerlink but if others believe it can be achieved, we wish them all the best. As an interested shareholder we look forward to better understanding the details of the deal,” he said.

Quinbrook’s managing partner, David Scaysbrook, said Sun Cable promised to be “not only one of the largest renewables projects in Australia, but a project of global significance”.

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• Trips on public transport, walking and riding must triple to see genuine transport emissions reduction: Climate Council report | Climate Council

Australia can reduce transport emissions by 75 percent by the end of this decade with a massive shift to electrified public transport, walking and bike riding, new Climate Council research shows.

The Climate Council’s new report, Shifting Gears: The Path to Cleaner Personal Transport reveals to get there, daily trips on electric public transport would need to increase three and a half times. Similarly, daily journeys made on a bike or on foot would need to triple.

Transport is the biggest source of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions after energy, with cars and light commercial vehicles alone making up almost two-thirds (62 percent) of transport pollution.

Significant investment in zero emissions transport and infrastructure is needed to give Australians cheaper, more sustainable and reliable options to get from A to B.

Currently, the transport mix is unsustainable. Australians mostly use private vehicles (81 percent of trips), compared to just 14 percent public transport and 5 percent active transport.

By 2030, the transport mix should – ideally – look more like 36 percent of trips made by private vehicle, 49 percent of trips via public transport and 15 percent with active transport.

Dr Jennifer Rayner, Climate Council Head of Advocacy, said: “To get to net zero, the way we get around in Australia needs to change. There’s been a lot of focus on increasing uptake of electric vehicles as a solution, but rapidly cleaning up transport calls for a bigger re-think on how we move around.

“Enabling more Australians to choose public and active transport – like walking and bike riding – can drive down emissions while also delivering cleaner air, less congestion and make our communities much more liveable. Luckily, we have the technology we need to deliver this right now.

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• NT government accused of lying about meeting climate condition before it greenlit ‘carbon bomb’ Beetaloo fracking

New documents reveal the Northern Territory government knew it could not meet a key recommendation to reduce the climate risk of its planned massive expansion of gas production, and asked the Albanese government for help.

Federal climate change officials in turn admitted Australia did not have any existing policies that would meet the recommendation in full.

Advocates say the documents are proof the Northern Territory government lied when it claimed all the conditions were in place to give the green light to gas production in the Beetaloo Basin, an area of vast shale reserves 500km south-east of Darwin.

Analysis suggests full production at Beetaloo would create a “carbon bomb” of 1.4bn tonnes of total emissions globally.

A green light for Beetaloo

When the NT government lifted its fracking moratorium in 2018, it did so with the promise there would be no move to production until all 135 recommendations from the territory’s 2018 Pepper inquiry into fracking were implemented.

Earlier this month, the NT chief minister, Natasha Fyles, cleared the way for fracking production to begin in the Beetaloo Basin when she announced she was satisfied all of the inquiry’s recommendations – including recommendation 9.8 – had been met on the project.

That recommendation requires the NT and federal governments to “seek to ensure” there is no net increase in life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Australia from any unconventional gas projects in the Northern Territory.

Fyles told a press conference in early May “we have absolutely met the recommendation” but later backtracked, admitting that meeting this requirement for scope 2 – the energy used by gas companies – and scope 3 – when the gas is sold and burnt – emissions would require work with the commonwealth government.

Dr David Ritchie, the scientist overseeing the implementation of the inquiry, also wrote a letter saying there had been “material departures” from some of the recommendations and “no progress on the crux” of recommendation 9.8.

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• Highlight

Indian Prime Minister Modi strikes new agreements on migration and green hydrogen in Australia

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck new agreements Wednesday with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on migration and green hydrogen, while raising concerns about attacks on Hindu temples in Sydney.

They also agreed on the terms of reference on a bilateral Green Hydrogen Task Force that will promote cooperation on producing the gas without use of fossil fuels.

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• Power bills to surge for thousands under new price cap

Power bills will surge by up to $600 annually for hundreds of thousands of Australian households under a new electricity price ceiling.

The default market offer, determined by the Australian Energy Regulator, fixes the maximum price retailers can charge customers in NSW, South Australia and southeast Queensland.

From July 1, residential customers will see price increases of 19.6 to 24.9 per cent, depending on their region.

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Energy Minister Chris Bowen said customers were facing rises of between 40 and 50 per cent before the government took action.

"These are big increases, but as the regulator made clear, without the intervention of the Albanese government they would have been much bigger," he said.

The head of the energy regulator also confirmed the price caps had kept prices under control.

The federal government committed $3 billion towards direct energy price relief in the May budget.

But social welfare groups want the government to go further.

The head of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie, said the price cap needed to be extended until 2025 and that the slated increases in income support wouldn't go far enough.

"Governments must step in to do more to provide income and debt relief now," she said.

The opposition has already attacked the government for failing to bring down energy prices.

Energy spokesman Ted O'Brien said the government couldn't claim the lower-than-forecast increase as a win after Labor came to power promising cheaper electricity bills.

"When the government says it could have been worse, it's the government comparing its set of dumb policies now to its really dumb policies only a few months ago," Mr O'Brien said.

Mr Bowen said the government had not given up on its pledge to reduce power bills by $275 by 2025, and would work to hasten to transition to renewable energy to bring prices down.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/power-bill...211433088.html

• Australia's biggest coal generator joins rush to offshore wind in new consortium

AGL, Australia’s largest coal generator and biggest polluter, has joined the rush to grab a share of the nascent offshore wind sector by joining a powerful new consortium that includes some deep-pocketed global investors.

The consortium – comprising Ireland’s Mainstream Renewable Power, Canada’s Reventus Power, and Australia’s Direct Infrastructure – says it seeking to build a 2.5GW offshore wind project in Gippsland, the first offshore wind zone to be developed in Australia.

The consortium is one of possibly two dozen or more that are seeking a feasibility licence from the federal government. Only a few are expected to be granted at the end of this year.

The AGL consortium says its project could deliver an economic benefit of more than $3.7 billion and create more than 8,600 full time jobs. Its proposal includes a $400 million package to support workforce and supply chain development, an increasingly critical pinch point for the Australian renewables industry.

AGL’s interest is particularly interesting given it owns one of the three remaining brown coal generators in Victoria – in the nearby Latrobe Valley – that the state government wants shut down by 2035 to meet its 95 per cent renewables target, and its legislated climate goals.

AGL recently closed the ageing and decrepit Liddell coal generator in NSW, and is likely to close the neighbouring Bayswater coal plant in a decade’s time, if not earlier, as the switch to green energy gathers pace, driven by technology change, climate targets and activist shareholders such as Mike Cannon-Brookes.

“AGL’s strategy to bring forward our targeted exit from coal to 2035 is coupled with an ambition to supply our customers with 12 GW of additional renewable and firming capacity,” AGL chief financial office Gary Brown said in a statement.

“Wind energy will be an important part of our plan to responsibly transition our generation portfolio to meet our customer demand and keep Australia’s electricity supply secure, reliable, and affordable.

“As a major employer in the Gippsland region, we are committed to working with our people and the community to ensure the decarbonisation of our energy system continues to provide opportunities.”

There are now more than 20 big groups bidding for the rights to conduct the first feasibility studies for offshore wind in Gippsland, Victoria, the first officially declared zone in Australia.

Other major Australian utilities have already declared their interest in offshore wind, and Gippsland in particular, including Origin Energy and Alinta.

Macquarie’s Corio has also staked out at least two potential offshore wind projects, while global giants such as Orted, Equinor, Shell, Vena Energy and others have also joined the queue.

Just this week oil and gas company Beach Energy teamed up with a Belgian company Parkland, now owned by Japanese coal and gas giant Jera, to enter the bidding.

The irish based Mainstream Renewables entered the Australian market in 2019 and says it has 1.5GW of onshore wind projects in Queensland that are being prepared for planning approvals. Its global portfolio stands at 20GW, including offshore wind projects in Asia.

Tove Røskaft, Head of Offshore Wind at Mainstream, said:

“Mainstream has a strong history in offshore wind as one of the earliest developers globally,” said Tove Røskaft, the company’s head of offshore wind.

“Our 20-year plus legacy goes back to developing the very first offshore wind farms in Ireland and the UK, including the Hornsea zone which is the world’s largest offshore wind farm in operation today.

“Mainstream was part of the partnership behind the UK’s biggest offshore wind supply chain success story and by leveraging the global experience of our parent company, the Aker group, we seek to bring similar benefits to the local supply chain in Australia.”

Reventus Power was founded by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to lead its opportunities associated in the global energy transition, with a focus on offshore energy.

Direct Infrastructure is a “specialist” offshore wind company chaired by former Woodside boss Peter Coleman,

“We are pleased to be part of one of the strongest partnerships in Australia’s emerging offshore wind industry,” Coleman said.

“The energy transition in Australia is going to require large-scale offshore wind generation, and we look forward to supporting the Commonwealth and Victorian governments with their offshore wind energy ambitions.”

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• Pioneering community wind farm wins federal funds to add a big battery

The first community wind farm to be built on Australia’s main grid, an award-winning two-turbine project in Hepburn in central Victoria, will soon add a community battery, after plans to install energy storage were awarded federal government funding.

Hepburn Energy said on Tuesday it had been granted up to $500,000 from the federal government’s $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program to add storage to the Hepburn Wind site in Leonards Hill, about 100km northwest of Melbourne.

The battery, which is permitted for up to 10MWh of energy storage capacity, will join turbines “Gale” and “Gusto,” which were installed back in 2011 by a then 1,900 member cooperative led by founding chair Simon Holmes à Court. (The co-op now numbers 2,009 shareholding members.)

Also on the cards is a 5MW solar farm, to help fill wind generation gaps that modelling has found to be occurring most often in the middle of the day.

“This announcement comes after years of work on our hybrid solar and battery farm project, which received its planning permit last year,” Hepburn Energy said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Since then, we’ve been looking for potential funding sources to make this dream a reality, and we were thrilled to receive a pre-election commitment from the now-sitting Australian government.

Hepburn Energy says the federal funding will enable it to deliver Stage 1 of the battery project, somewhere between 5-10MWh. It then hopes to scale up to the full 10MWh “as other funding sources become available.”

“But in the meantime, this is a huge step forward for our co-operative and we’re excited to welcome this new chapter,” a statement says.

Hepburn Energy is one of the first recipients of the Albanese government’s much heralded community battery grants to be made public, following the news last week that Yarra Energy Foundation had won funding to install a BESS in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Richmond.

Federal Labor’s Community Batteries for Household Solar program divides its $200 million between Chris Bowen’s department of energy and climate and ARENA – $29 million and $171 million, respectively.

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• Qantas calls for eco-friendly fuel rules in Australia

All Australian airlines should be forced to cut pollution from air travel, says Qantas which has called on the federal government to mandate sustainable aviation fuel.

The call to green our skies came as the national carrier revealed it had created a $400 million "climate fund" to invest in biofuel projects with Airbus, and for further research in the field.

The announcement, made during the airline's investment event on Tuesday, also follows the Queensland government declaring it would work with Qantas to create an eco-friendly fuel refinery in the state.

Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is considered a major pathway to cutting emissions within the aviation industry, which has pledged to reach net zero by 2050.

The fuel is created using agricultural and forestry waste products such as cooking oil, corn grain, wood mill waste and algae, and can be used in existing aircraft.

Qantas Group chief sustainability officer Andrew Parker said the company had made significant investments in the green fuel but all Australian airlines should use it to ensure the country would reach its climate targets.

"Creating markets for new fuels is a critical part of tackling climate change, which is why we're today calling for a SAF mandate to be introduced to catalyse the development of the industry," he said.

"Several of the countries we fly to have already committed to blending mandates of five to 10 per cent by 2030 and others are well on the path to introducing one.

"Australia has significant advantages for SAF production and there's a great opportunity to create a new domestic industry."

Norway, Sweden and France currently have SAF-blending mandates in place, and a similar move is proposed for the European Union in 2025.

Qantas will use $290m from its $400m climate fund to invest in domestic fuel production with Airbus, including the biofuel refinery project in Queensland, while the remaining $110m goes towards other projects and research in the field.

Mr Parker said the airline had already purchased 10 million litres of SAF for flights out of London this year and would purchase 20 million litres for Californian flights in 2025.

"We have already made progress towards our interim climate targets with sustainable aviation fuel powering our flights out of London, more fuel-efficient aircraft arriving every month and a mature carbon offset program," he said.

"We need to turbocharge these efforts if we are to cut our carbon emissions by 25 per cent by 2030 and have net-zero emissions by 2050."

Sustainable aviation fuel has emerged as the leading method of cutting emissions in the industry, with CSIRO Futures senior manager Max Temminghoff calling it "a critical tool for decarbonisation".

The International Air Transport Association estimates the fuel will be responsible for 65 per cent of carbon emission cuts in the industry by 2050, with 13 per cent coming from new technology, hydrogen and electric planes.

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In other news....

• Winter weather forecast Australia: What Australians can expect

Warm or cold, snow or no: What can Australians expect this winter?

Brad Jackson, a senior climatologist with the BoM

For those that fear the cold, Jackson also had some good news.

He said much of Australia can expect "above-average temperatures".

"It depends where you're located within Australia," he said.

"(But) in areas where you have an average maximum temperature of say 10 degrees it might be a bit more, so 12, 13 or 14 degrees.

"I'll add that minimum temperatures around Australia are looking still above average throughout eastern New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, the northern Northern Territory.

"Around central parts of Australia, you're looking around average.

"So you're still looking at some slightly warmer nights probably as well."

• Albanese - There's nothing to stop someone going out there and investing in a new coal fired power plant – except reality. Except the market. And the market tells you the cheapest form of new energy is renewables.

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• Queensland to legislate renewable targets in $62 billion wind, solar and storage plan

Queensland – the country’s mosts coal dependent state – says it will lock in its multiple renewable energy targets – which rise to 80 per cent by 2035 – through legislation as part of a $62 billion investment plan over the next decade.

The state Labor government says it expects 22GW of new wind and solar, and another 12GW of batteries and pumped hydro, will be built by 2035, creating 100,000 jobs along the way.

The plan includes transforming the sites of the state’s coal generating facilities into clean energy hubs, the construction of two massive pumped hydro projects at Borumba and Burdekin, new transmission links such as the Copperstring line out to Mt Isa, and green hydrogen hubs at Gladstone and Townsville.

The legislation will include the creation of multiple renewable energy zones, a jobs security and guarantee fee, a Queensland Energy System Advisory Board, an Energy Industry Council, the Queensland Renewable Energy Jobs Advocate.

Queensland currently has the lowest renewable energy share of any state in Australia – at 22 per cent – and will not overtake other states despite the targets it plans to legislate – 50 per cent by 2030, 70 per cent by 2032, and 80 per cent by 2035.

South Australia is aiming for net 100 per cent renewables by 2030 and will likely reach that level well before then, Victoria is aiming for 95 per cent renewables by 2035, and NSW has no renewables target per se but has a roadmap that anticipates all its coal fired generators could close by the end of the decade.

Queensland also has a relatively weak emissions reduction target of just 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, beneath the federal target of 43 per cent cut by 2030, and well below what the science says is required as part of efforts to cap global warming at 1.5°C.

“We are building the Queensland SuperGrid, Australia’s largest, which will provide the backbone to our new energy system to transport renewable energy across the state,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said in a statement.

“Queensland also has some of the best wind and solar resources in the world which is why we are seeing so many renewable energy projects planned or underway.

“The legislation will also provide security for our energy workforce as the energy transition occurs, makes sure no worker is left behind, and legislates our commitment to public ownership.”

A $150 million Job Security Guarantee will support workers in publicly owned coal-fired power stations, for training, support, to ensure a sufficient number of workers are retained for the safe and reliable operation of coal- fired power stations, and to provide founding for the energy council and renewable jobs advocate.

Energy minister Mick de Brenni says the large government ownership of the energy system in Queensland, including the state owned generators Stanwell, CS Energy and CleanCo, and the transmission company Powerlink, and the local networks, would smooth the transition.

The state expects 54 per cent of the new capacity to come from state companies, and 46 per cent from private investment. The state will own and fund all of the transmission and deep storage (pumped hydro) assets.

The state also plans to support local manufacturing. “We will need thousands of batteries, wind turbines, solar panels and kilometres of transmission lines – and we want that equipment built here in Queensland, so Queenslanders get the benefits,”deputy premier Ian Miles said.

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• Palaszczuk pledges $500m for renewables as Labor sharpens pitch for 2024 state election

The first day of the Queensland Labor state conference was as rehearsed as the government probably hoped, with little infighting or division on display.

In the sugar city of Mackay, where Labor has held the state seat for more than a century, MPs were keen to portray the government as a united front ahead of next October’s election and to keep the focus on three key pressure points: cost of living, health and youth crime.

If there were disagreements, they were tightly contained behind closed doors.

“Leadership is about having that ability to take a stand, to do what’s right, to unite Queensland, not to divide,” the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, told the crowd on Saturday.

Palaszczuk – who suffered her lowest approval rating on record in a recent poll – wasted no time in taking a dig at the state’s opposition leader, David Crisafulli.

“This week, the leader of the opposition took a stand … to vote no at the referendum later this year to a constitutionally enshrined voice to parliament,” she said.

“Unlike the LNP, our party stands united on the voice.”

The centrepiece of Labor’s announcements on Saturday was a $500m investment in the publicly owned company CleanCo to fund solar and wind projects in central Queensland.

The government also said it would legislate a target of 70% renewable energy by 2032, with the energy minister, Mick de Brenni, declaring it was time to “take action on climate”.

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• Climate change risk added to banking watchdog's beat

Australia's banking regulator will push banks, insurers and superannuation funds to properly account for climate risks under an updated charter.

The Albanese government has released an updated Statement of Expectations for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

The statement sets out how the government expects the regulator to carry out its responsibilities to keep the sector financially sound.

For the first time, the regulator is explicitly required to consider risks related to climate change as part of its work, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

"Our priority is to ensure Australia's financial system remains stable and robust and that the regulator is responsive to changing economic conditions," Dr Chalmers said.

"This includes promoting transparency in relation to financial risks and the adoption of climate reporting standards."

The statement released on Wednesday focuses on APRA's role in ensuring a safe, resilient and competitive financial system.

But it adds "promote prudent practices and transparency" on climate-related financial risks and the adoption of the new standards as a priority.

The government has also added an expectation that APRA be mindful that new regulations can be more onerous and costly for small businesses to manage.

Betashares director Greg Liddell said requiring the regulator to consider climate-related financial risks was a welcome step that would help protect shareholder value.

Other jurisdictions, such as the European Commission, have implemented similar requirements, including so-called "double materiality" that brings environmental impacts into traditional financial accounting.

Mr Liddell said it was an important principle the federal government and APRA could use in Australia.

Energy finance expert Tim Buckley said the treasurer has made clear he considers national strategic interests to be a crucial consideration in institutional investment objectives and wants his legacy to be Australia's clean energy transformation.

"We need the right APRA benchmarks to align our massive superannuation investment pool with the massive transition opportunities staring Australia in the face," Mr Buckley said.

A recent report called for the regulator, the Foreign Investment Review Board, the Future Fund, Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and "your future your super" mandates to be aligned with national climate laws.

The Climate Energy Finance report estimated $100 billion of public capital would attract about $300b of private investment.

Sovereign green bonds slated to begin in mid‑2024 will also enable investors to back climate investments.

The federal Albanese government is in the process of establishing an area in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the NSW Hunter Region as Australia’s second official offshore wind development zone.

• BlueFloat moves ahead, and further north, on NSW floating offshore wind project

Spanish offshore wind developer BlueFloat Energy has announced a “re-launch” of its 1.6GW South Pacific Offshore Wind Project, which it now plans to develop 14-30km off the coast of New South Wales, between Shellharbour and Clifton.

BlueFloat Energy had been weighing up a couple of locations off the Illawarra and South Coast for the South Pacific project, including between Kiama and Jervis Bay.

In an update this week, BlueFloat says the preferred more northerly site for the 105 floating wind turbines has won out due to a strong and consistent wind resource and its proximity to the Illawarra’s existing industrial base.

The company says the project will create significant local economic benefits for the region with thousands of local jobs required during construction and hundreds in ongoing operations and maintenance.

“We want to deliver maximum benefit for the region, whilst also ensuring coexistence with industry and community,” said BlueFloat’s Australian country manager, Nick Sankey.

“It is important to us that we start conversations with the community early to share our plans and gather feedback,” he added.

“The first step for us is creating a map of where we’d like to develop the project and understanding design requirements.”

BlueFloat Energy has a pipeline of 32.4GW of both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind projects across 10 countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

In Australia, BlueFloat is also working up the proposed 1.725MW Eastern Rise offshore wind project, located off the NSW Hunter coast, south of Sydney.

The federal Albanese government is in the process of establishing an area in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the NSW Hunter Region as Australia’s second official offshore wind development zone.

The area off the Illawarra coast – north of Sydney – is expected to form part of a separate federally declared zone, but is already a part of a fifth NSW government REZ that, like the Hunter REZ, is expected to have a large component of offshore wind, thanks to port facilities built as a legacy of the coal and steel industries in those two regions.

BlueFloat said this week that once the Illawarra offshore wind zone is declared by the federal government, the company will apply for a Feasibility Licence for the South Pacific project, which will allow for environmental studies to be completed, as well as assessment and planning approvals over an roughly five-year period.

Construction of the project is planned to start in early 2028 with the project expected to be fully operational by early 2031, the company says.

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• ACT passes first law in Australia banning gas in new homes, as fossil empire strikes back

A landmark, Australian-first law prohibiting the use of fossil gas in new homes and businesses is set to come into play in the nation’s capital as early as November, following a parliamentary vote on Thursday.

The ACT government’s Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Natural Gas Transition) Amendment Bill was passed through the Legislative Assembly on Thursday afternoon to establish the legal framework to end new gas network connections. Labor and the Greens hold a majority in the ACT assembly.

The ACT already sources all of its electricity from 100 per cent renewables, which have once again protected households from a big increase in bills, and announced last year that all fossil fuel gas connections would cease before 2045, the same date as the territory’s net zero emissions target.

Writing a gas ban into law puts the territory well ahead of the rest of Australia on electrification, considered by a broad range of experts to be one of the fastest and cheapest ways to slash energy emissions and deliver cost of living relief.

Victoria follows not too far behind with the Labor government’s “gas substitution roadmap,” which at this stage is incentivising households to invest in efficient electric alternatives to gas for home heating and hot water.

“Now that the ACT is powered by 100% renewable electricity, our next energy challenge is addressing emissions from fossil fuel gas,” said ACT energy minister Shane Rattenbury on Thursday.

“The first step in phasing out gas completely is to prevent the installation of any new gas.

“Utilising the legislative framework established in the legislation, I expect regulation to be in place by the end of the year, prohibiting new gas connections in new suburb or new infill developments.”

The new rules will prohibit all new fossil fuel gas network connections in residential and commercial areas, with connections in industrial areas still allowed until a further regulation is made.

This is no small thing. According to Evoenergy, the Territory’s gas distributor, there are currently around 139,000 gas mains connections in the ACT, with 80 per cent of all new homes still connecting to the fossil gas network.

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• Retired Santos gas wells off Western Australia coast leaking for a decade, regulator says

Decommissioned gas wells from a Santos project off the coast of Western Australia have been leaking from the seabed for a decade, according to documents published by the national petroleum regulator.

The leaks, first reported by WA Today, are located at the Legendre gas field north of the Pilbara port of Dampier, and were detected by an underwater vehicle in 2013.

In a report to the petroleum regulator, Nopsema, Santos wrote it was “not feasible” to stop the leaks, which are described on the regulator’s website as “ongoing gas seepage in the form of small bubbles”.

A Santos spokesperson said the company had engaged the national science agency, the CSIRO, to “undertake an in-depth monitoring program”.

“Findings to date show that the gas is nontoxic and unlikely to present an environmental hazard,” they said.

“Santos is currently implementing a management plan that includes a regular monitoring program.”

A Nopsema spokesperson said the regulator had asked Santos to “undertake activity to show the cause of the reported seepage and required that Santos submit an environment plan to demonstrate the appropriate management of any works undertaken”.

The spokesperson said the regulator could not comment on the specifics of the environment plan while it was under assessment.

Jeff Waters, an offshore fossil gas campaigner at the environment group Friends of the Earth, disagreed with Santos’s assessment the leaks were nontoxic.

“Certainly it’s toxic to the environment in the sense that it’s adding to the greenhouse gas emissions of Australia,” he said.

The company has proposed monitoring the wells for five years under an environment plan.

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• Australia set for cheaper solar power as supply of panels soars, says report

Australians could soon start to benefit from cheaper solar panels as a dive in raw material costs and a “boom” in global output delivers annual solar electricity price falls of 10% for the rest of the decade, according to a report by Climate Energy Finance.

The Solar Pivot report by analysts Tim Buckley and Xuyang Dong said prices of polysilicon used to make the wafers in panels have fallen by two-thirds in 2023, sending panel prices down to US18c (A26.7c) a watt as of last month.

Global installations of solar hit a record 268 gigawatts last year and could reach 1,000GW by 2030. “This would have profound implications for electricity and energy markets globally,” the report said.

“CEF foresees the world could hit 1,000GW per annum of solar installs by 2030. This would have profound implications for electricity and energy markets globally.”

Panel maker JinkoSolar last month announced plans for a US$7.9bn wafer-to-module solar factory in the Chinese province of Shanxi that alone will churn out as much as 56GW solar capacity a year. That scale is 19 times the biggest US plant – now being built - and compares with Australia’s total solar capacity of 30GW as 2022.

“The energy sector for decades has failed to invest in technology,” Buckley said. “Now the Chinese are spending unbelievable amounts of money.”

The US, the European Union and India are among economies also ramping up investments in solar energy. The motivation is partly to decarbonise their energy systems and reduce dependence on Russia but also to counter China’s growing domination of renewable technologies, particularly solar.

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by the US Biden administration and which set aside $US369bn to bolster energy security and manufacturing, will drive a five-fold increase in yearly panel output to 40GW by 2024 and double solar installs to 40-50GW a year to 2030.

By contrast, China is on track to have 12 solar manufacturing enterprises with annual module production capacity of 30GW each. It also will install 120-140GW of solar in 2023, doubling that to 260GW by 2030, the report said.

Buckley said catching up with China if energy security was the goal was “a serious problem”.

“They’re actually building market dominance with every year that goes by at the speed they’re moving,” he said, noting China’s share of global polysilicon output was already 75% in 2021 and will reach 90% by the end of this year.

With all that expanded production capacity, “it’s an easy guess to say module prices will drop 30 or 40% by the end of this year versus where they were at 12-18 months ago,” Buckley said.

Renate Egan, head of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics based at the University of New South Wales, said the report was “comprehensive and optimistic”, underscoring solar’s falling cost compared with energy sources, including coal.

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...rs-says-report

• Govt pours $30m into sustainable aviation fuel industry

The federal government is providing grants totalling $30 million via its renewable investment agency ARENA to boost the sustainable aviation fuel industry.

The funding will be available to industries that are looking for ways of developing their products, climate change minister Chris Bowen said on Wednesday.

“These grant applications will open in the coming weeks and will be open until November.

“So I invite people who are interested in developing Australia’s sustainable aviation fuel industry to apply for $30 million of funding,” he told reporters at Canberra Airport on Wednesday.

“We know there are people, particularly in industries like the sugar industry that are looking for new ways to develop their products and the feedstock with sustainable aviation fuel is an exciting opportunity for many of them.”

The announcement came as the government said it had formalised membership and released the terms of its ‘Jet Zero Council’.

The Jet Zero Council, based on a UK model which aims to delivering at least 10 per cent sustainable aviation fuel in the UK fuel mix by 2030 and zero emission transatlantic flights within a generation, was announced in February.

Jet Zero Council

The council will to work with the aviation industry to decarbonise the sector and advise the government on policy settings to achieve this, transport minister Catherine King said.

Ms King will chair the council, which will will bring together stakeholders from airlines, airports, the fuel sector and manufacturing, including Qantas, Virgin, Brisbane Airport Corporation, the Australian Institute of Petroleum, Airbus, Boeing, CSIRO, ARENA and the department of Defence.

Speaking to reporters at Canberra airport on Wednesday, Ms King said it was step towards a whole-of-aviation-sector approach towards reducing emissions.

“The Jet Zero Council will really lead that work not just in sustainable aviation fuel but other parts of the industry so that we know that government is getting the best advice it can and working in partnership with the industry to really decarbonise this hard-to-abate sector in transport,” she said.

Targets

Aviation accounted for about nine per cent of Australia’s transport emissions and 1.6 per cent of total emissions in 2018-19.

“(We want to take) aviation fuel and make it step by step more sustainable,” Mr Bowen said.

“It’s happening around the world but we don’t have a sustainable aviation fuel industry in Australia at the moment, and we should have one. Other countries, most notably the United States, you can get early stages of sustainable aviation fuel. We want to see Australia at the front of the pack.”

Shahana McKenzie from the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Australia New Zealand (SAFANZ), which will also be represented on the Jet Zero council, said the industry wants to see 1 billion litres of sustainable aviation fuel refined in Australia for domestic use.

“A sustainable aviation fuel industry … is a new industry in Australia and we are absolutely delighted with the announcements today,” she told reporters.

_________

• Canadian renewable energy company, Hydrostor, opens Melbourne headquarters

The Victorian Government has announced that Canadian renewable energy company Hydrostor will open its Melbourne headquarters, establishing its presence in Australia.

Minister for Trade and Investment Tim Pallas has announced the move, noting that Hydrostor setting up its regional headquarters in Melbourne will enhance the State’s renewable energy sector.

“We are a leader in innovation and renewables and that’s why companies like Hydrostor want to be here. These investments are growing the state’s tech capabilities and creating jobs,” Minister Pallas said.

The Silver City Energy Storage Centre near Broken Hill is owned and developed by Hydrostor, with an investment decision for additional regional growth planned later this year.

According to the State Government, the company chose Victoria as its Asia Pacific headquarters owing to the State’s strong R&D skills, booming renewable energy sector, commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2045, and Government support.

The State Government added that the Toronto-based company is a pioneer in developing zero-emission energy storage, producing Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage for use with its unique technology.

“Compressed Air Energy Storage is a vital component of the clean energy transition to achieve net-zero emissions and we are committed to bringing low impact solutions to communities throughout Australia,” Hydrostor Curtis VanWalleghem said.

The process generates heated compressed air from low-cost grid surplus power and stores it in a purpose-built cavern deep underground, providing an alternative to Pumped Hydro Energy Storage for bulk long-term energy storage.

Compressed air is converted to electricity via a turbine when power is required, resulting in enhanced efficiency and eliminating the need for fossil fuels during operation.

Hydrostor has inked a 25-year power purchase deal with a utility company in California. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the Canadian Pension Plan, and the Business Development Bank of Canada are all investors in the company.

According to fDi Markets data, Victoria will receive $8.9 billion in international investment in 2022. Investment in the Victorian renewable energy sector alone totalled $5.1 billion.

“We’re proud that our ambitious climate agenda and nation-leading emissions reduction targets of 75-80 per cent by 2035 and net zero by 2045 are attracting investment from companies from around the world,” Minister for Energy and Resources Lily D’Ambrosio said.

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• "Day for history books:" Hazelwood becomes first coal plant to transition to big battery

The first big battery to be built in Australia at the site of a former coal generator – the Hazelwood big battery in Victoria – was officially commissioned on Wednesday in what is being hailed as an “historic” moment for the green energy transition in Australia.

The 150MW, one hour Hazelwood battery is located at the site of what was once the country’s dirtiest coal generator, a 1600MW giant that was shut down in early 2017, controversially with little notice.

It was a move that set in train a period of high power prices and political outrage. But it also accelerated efforts to build new wind, solar and storage.

The Hazelwood battery energy storate system – which began testing on the grid in April – is majority owned by French energy company Engie, the owner of the former Halzewood coal plant, and 30 per cent by the newly formed Macquarie Group battery spinoff, Eku Energy.

Hazelwood might be the first big battery to be built on the site of a former or existing coal generator, but is by no means the last.

Big batteries are and will be built at the sites of the Kogan Creek, Stanwell, Swanbank, and Tarong plants in Queensland, and at the sites of the Liddell, Eraring and Mt Piper coal plants in NSW, along with Loy Yang in Victoria and in Collie in Western Australia.

The reason is pretty clear. Coal fired generators are getting old and less reliable and less able to cope with the changing dynamics of a grid driven by a large uptake of wind and solar.

But coal plants may be shutting down but they leave infrastructure – switchyards, substations and power lines – that make it easier and cheaper for big batteries to connect to the grid.

And while the batteries themselves do not have the raw capacity of the coal plants they are replacing, they do have the flexibility to respond to variations in wind and solar, and they delight in the price volatility – charging at times of low or even negative prices, and discharging when demand in high.

Rik De Buyserie, the head of Engie in Australia, says Hazelwood is the perfect location for a battery that will likely grow – adding more hours of storage, and also capacity, as the market requires. The site could accomodate up to 800MW of battery capacity, with multiple hours of storage.

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• A coal royalties revamp delivered a record surplus in Queensland. Here’s why NSW must follow suit

When Queensland posted a surprise $12bn surplus – the largest ever recorded by an Australian state – in this week’s budget, it was a testament to its progressive coal royalties system.

Introduced by the treasurer, Cameron Dick, in June 2022, royalties range from 7-40% of revenues depending on coal prices, and are immediately delivering beyond expectations for the people of Queensland.

The reform was designed to ensure an appropriate social dividend from private fossil fuel companies’ use of Queenslanders’ public resources in times of exceptionally high coal export prices. As a result, Queensland booked a massive record $18.3bn of coal and LNG royalties and land rents in 2022-23, double that of the previous year. Queensland will see more modest but still very welcome $6bn annual inflows over the forward estimates as coal prices continue to normalise.

Among other things, this has enabled the state to fund a $550 electricity bill rebate for all households ($1,072 for more vulnerable homes) – more than any other state across Australia – offsetting the fossil fuel-driven energy price crisis.

The government has also committed a staggering $19bn over four years for new wind and solar energy, pumped hydro storage and transmission expansions. This will put Queensland on the path to deliver on its 85% renewables by 2035 target, driving decarbonisation of the electricity grid and locking in deflationary, low-cost domestic energy supply. The only way to rid the community of the scourge of energy price volatility and hyperinflation is to decouple from expensive, polluting fossil fuels.

Queensland’s mining industry booked a record $140bn of exports in 2022-23. While prices for premium thermal coal have fallen from the US$400/t average of late 2022 to US$170/t in May 2023, this is still about 2.5 times the long-term average of US$70/t. Windfall profits are still being made.

It is time that the New South Wales treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, followed his northern counterpart’s politically courageous and fiscally responsible lead and acted in the interests of the people by putting in place a similar system. The flat 7-8% coal export royalty rate in NSW is overdue for immediate review and uplift. The $12bn 2022-23 NSW state deficit could have been a $5-10bn surplus if NSW had followed Queensland’s move to respond appropriately to coal industry superprofits and align these with citizens’ interests.

The NSW government continues to forgo billions in coal export royalties every month, favouring the interests of a handful of predominantly foreign tax-haven-based multinationals, which in many cases pay zero corporate tax and benefit from multibillion-dollar fossil subsidies, like the antiquated zero-strategic-purpose diesel fuel rebate for mining companies.

Currently, NSW coal export firms keep a record 92% share of coal export revenues. This allows companies like Whitehaven Coal to enjoy a remarkable annualised 68.9% gross cash return on assets in the six months to December 2022, all while externalising the costs of climate destruction on to the community.

Similar coal royalty reform could be invested in NSW’s enormous opportunities to lead in renewables and key projects such as the Dubbo critical minerals precinct, de-risking and attracting private capital and adding valuable jobs to ensure a smooth transition as coal plant closures accelerate.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

^

Greens deputy leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi has launched legal action against One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson over a tweet telling Senator Faruqi to "pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan".


The tweet from Senator Pauline Hanson
was in response to comments made by the Greens deputy leader following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

Mehreen Faruqi sues Pauline Hanson over '''piss off back to Pakistan''' tweet | SBS News


Those comments were ...

In a social media post just hours after Her Majesty's death was announced, Ms Faruqi said she can’t “mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.


The Senator's tweet prompted outrage given how soon it was published after Her Majesty's death.
Speaking to SkyNews.com.au, the Institute of Public Affairs’ Gideon Rozner said the "unhinged" rant was embarrassing for an Australian Senator.
“Mehreen Faruqi, Adam Bandt and the Greens should give it a rest. Just take the day off,” he said.


“Mehreen Faruqi’s unhinged and pig-ignorant contributions would be embarrassing for a second-year arts student, let alone a federal senator.

“The Greens’ perennial nihilism and historical revisionism may appeal to the 10 per cent of Australians who vote for them, but will always be toxic for the mainstream.”

‘Unhinged and insensitive’: Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi slammed over ‘appalling’ tweet claiming Queen lead ‘racist empire’ | Sky News Australia

I think Australia could do with a lot more pakistani migrants like her. I do understand their need to find fresh fields after turning their own country into an uninhabitable shit hole. To make them feel right at home we could put them all in one area and call it new Rotherham. Dont worry we will use the same philosophy as the Brits. What happens in Rotherham stays in Rotherham. What could possibly go wrong?
Pauline Hanson is one of those old fashion racists who has the gall to think that citizens of a country should have the right to decide what migrants are suitable to enhance a country and integrate into the Australian culture and way of life without detriment to those living here. It has always fascinated me why so many migrants are absolutely falling over themselves to migrate to the nearest predominantly white racist country that will let them in.

• Hopes launch of new electric car could spark price war in Australia

The launch of a new electric car this week in Queensland could start a price battle among other manufacturers and make the technology accessible to a wider audience.

But market experts warn that Australia still needs better policies to ensure the competition takes hold and more consumer education about the ultimate price – and price savings – of the new vehicles.

BYD’s latest launch, called the Dolphin, set for Thursday on the Gold Coast, triggered speculation after the company promised it would deliver “the most affordable, high-quality EV launched in Australia”.

While predictions about its local cost have raged, the car is expected to undercut the $43,990 offered by other Chinese brands, MG and GWM.

The Electric Vehicle Council’s chief executive, Behyad Jafari, says the promise highlights growing downward pressure on next-generation car technology – pressure likely to intensify given the federal government’s commitment to introduce a fuel-efficiency standard.

“Whether it’s this car or another, we are seeing electric vehicle prices fall,” he says. “It won’t be long before we see electric vehicles in the $30,000 price ranges, and we saw sales pick up pretty quickly when $40,000 electric vehicles became available.”

The prices are a long way from four years ago, he says, when “the most popular electric vehicle cost around $120,000”.

Four battery-powered cars are now available in Australia with a price tag under $50,000, even though the most popular electric vehicle in the country, the Tesla Model Y, costs $68,900.

Splend’s chief executive, Chris King, whose company procures EVs for rideshare subscriptions, says falling costs are overdue in Australia.

“They’ve started with the more premium segment and they’re moving down to more cost-effective segments as production costs come down and they reach scale,” he says.

“We’ve seen [cheaper EVs] in London for more than three years now and they’re the same kind of cars that we’ll see in Australia.”

King says a “sharp price point” for the BYD Dolphin could set the tone for the market and inspire competition.

“Over the next 12 months, I think we’ll start to see the likes of Volkswagen here ... and there’s some really good products coming out from Kia and Hyundai,” he says.

The Australian Electric Vehicle Association’s national president, Dr Chris Jones, says there are still questions about whether BYD’s Dolphin will be the first electric car to break the $40,000 barrier. Its New Zealand pricing is equivalent to $45,000.

“Any car price that starts with a three will be hot news,” Jones says. “If the driveway price is under $40,000 that will be a real breakthrough.”

• Bowen kicks off capacity scheme with doubling of NSW battery tender to replace coal

The federal Labor government has begun the roll-out of the new Capacity Investment Scheme, starting with the state of NSW where a tender for battery storage and other “firm” technologies has been more than doubled to fill a gap created by planned coal plant closures.

The federal and NSW Labor governments have decided to increase a tender of “firm capacity” from 380MW to 930MW, and should have no shortage of takers given that more than 3.3GW of proposals – mostly for big batteries – were received in the first stage of the tender.

The funds for the additional capacity will come from the federal government.

Federal energy and climate change minister Chris Bowen also revealed on Thursday that the states of Victoria and South Australia will hold their first auctions under the Capacity Investment Mechanism in October.

Bowen expects the scheme to unlock 6GW of firm capacity, and up to $10 billion of new investment, to help fill the gaps of coal and gas closures across the country’s main grid.

The auctions will be available for any project that have reached Final Investment Decision since the CIS was initially announced in December 2022, to avoid any delay in investment.

Bowen says the deal with the NSW government will eliminate the forecast shortfall in 2028/29 flagged by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) following the anticipated closures of Eraring in 2025 and Vales Point in 2028/9.

“Today’s announcement will drastically improve energy security with large-scale batteries and other zero-emission technology that can quickly dispatch cleaner, cheaper renewable energy when it’s needed, like when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing,” Bowen said in a statement.

The announcement came on the same day as the Clean Energy Finance Corp invested $100 million in the $1 billion Waratah Super Battery being built by global funds giant BlackRock at the shuttered Munmorah coal plant and which will act as a sort of giant “shock absorber” for the grid.

The NSW tender for at least 380MW of two hours firming capacity was expected to be dominated by battery storage and demand management, which was included in a major auction for the first time. Fossil fuels were eliminated by strict emissions criteria.

________

• Businesses may face fines after audit of offset sites

More than 1000 environmental offset sites will be audited in a bid to rein in developers flouting the rules.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced on Thursday a full audit of the offset sites approved over the past 20 years under national laws.

Companies have been warned by the government to have their house in order, and to be up-front about any issues before reviewing gets under way.

The audit will consider whether offset requirements have been met, and if they are delivering the environmental benefits claimed.

Only recently has reporting started tracking whether developers are meeting their responsibilities.

Penalties may be slapped on businesses for projects found to be in breach of their approval conditions.

Ms Plibersek said when developers agreed to offset their impacts, it wasn't a choice, but a legal obligation.

"For too long projects have gotten away with promising one thing and not following through," she said.

"I've been told of a carpark being built where trees were meant to be planted to provide habitat for threatened species, and of unauthorised clearing of a site that was not properly protected.

"Approval holders should consider themselves on notice - deliver on your obligations for nature, or face penalties."

Ms Plibersek said the government wanted to protect nature, while also supporting sustainable development such as housing and renewable energy.

"Developers should do everything they can to avoid habitat destruction and reduce impacts on nature," she said.

__________

• Victorians rush to buy EVs in last days before state government dumps rebate scheme

A last-minute rush has seen more than 1,300 Victorians claim rebates on their electric vehicle purchases days before the state government ends the scheme, almost a year earlier than planned.

Government figures show Victorians have been claiming the $3,000 electric car subsidies at a rate of more than 60 a day since the change was announced early in June as part of the state’s 2024 budget.

But many more subsidies are available in other Australian states without plans to shut down their schemes, including in New South Wales, where more than 17,000 drivers could still claim a rebate, and in Queensland, which will double its subsidy for some buyers the day after Victoria ends its offer.

RMIT engineering research fellow Dr Syed Ali said Victoria’s move to end vehicle rebates was premature and had the potential to slow electric vehicle adoption and see Australia fall short of its 2030 emissions reduction target.

The Victorian government revealed plans to scrap its $3,000 electric vehicle subsidy for motorists on its website earlier this month, with a spokeswoman saying the government had already “laid the groundwork” to achieve electric car sales of 50% by 2030.

But the move has inspired a rush on electric vehicle purchases and claims in the state, with 1,202 claims approved in just 20 days.

Late on Wednesday, only 1,466 rebates remained available until the scheme was due to close at 6pm on June 30.

By comparison, the NSW government had 17,872 rebates remaining on 30 May and South Australia had 6,100 rebates left on 16 May.

The Queensland government will also double its subsidy on electric vehicle purchases to $6,000 for households earning less than $180,000 a year, with new applications due to be released on 1 July.

Ali said Australia’s automotive market was not ready to see electric vehicle subsidies scrapped or reduced and the move could discourage drivers from purchasing zero-emission vehicles.

“Government incentives should not be reduced at least until Australia achieves 40% to 50% EV uptake, which is currently even less than 10%,” he said.

_________

• BlackRock raises $500m for ‘world’s biggest battery’ in NSW

BlackRock has raised $500 million from institutions including its own infrastructure funds and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation towards the cost of building the Waratah Super Battery, one of the world’s largest committed batteries, in NSW.

The money will go towards the estimated $1 billion cost of building the huge 850 megawatt/1680 megawatt hour Waratah, or WSB, at the site of a shuttered power station at Lake Munmorah on the NSW Central Coast. Construction began in late May and completion is slated for 2025, ahead of the earliest possible closure date for Origin Energy’s 2880MW Eraring coal-fired power station.

The WSB is part of a pipeline of increasingly large storage batteries playing a growing role in stabilising the grid as coal power exits and other forms of new capacity such as Snowy 2.0 and huge new transmission lines needed to connect new wind and solar to demand hot spots suffer protracted delays.

BlackRock’s Akaysha Energy unit won a tender in October to build the WSB, beating AGL Energy, Origin Energy, Spanish giant Iberdrola and Neoen, which operates the 300 MW Victorian Big Battery near Geelong and the 150 MW Hornsdale battery in South Australia.

Big batteries have a smoother path to development approvals and are easier to finance and build than other forms of new capacity such as gas peaking plants, pumped hydro projects such as Snowy 2.0, and large new transmission links traversing valuable farmland.

Origin Energy will spend $600 million to develop the first 460MW stage of a big battery with up to 700MW capacity at its Eraring site in NSW, and AGL Energy plans to build a 500 megawatt battery at the site of the Liddell coal power plant at an estimated cost of $763 million. Equis Energy plans to spend more than $800 million on a huge battery of up to 1600MW at Melton, 25 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, positioned to absorb excess solar capacity from Melbourne’s rooftops and play it back to the grid when the sun goes down.

________

• Ocean wind farm earmarked off the southern coastline

Thousands of square kilometres of ocean off Victoria's coast has been earmarked for a wind farm zone that could power millions of homes.

The proposed site starts at Warrnambool in western Victoria and stretches across the South Australian border to Port MacDonnell.

Public consultation opened on Wednesday and the project's overview states no final decision has been made about the 5100 square kilometres project.

Southwestern Victoria is home to the Portland aluminium smelter, which uses about 10 per cent of the state's electricity.

The federal government believes an offshore windfarm could create 3000 jobs in construction and a further 3000 on an ongoing basis.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said the proposed site is an ideal location to generate enough electricity to power 8.4 million homes.

"Renewable energy is the foundation for Australia's future and I'm looking forward to hear from the local community about what they would like to see from this offshore zone," Mr Bowen said.

Local residents, traditional owners, workers, industry groups and community organisations have been asked to provide feedback with submissions closing at the end of August.

In December it was revealed 15,000 square kilometres off the coast of Gippsland in eastern Victoria would become home to the country's first offshore wind farm zone.

Other areas under consideration include the Hunter, Illawarra, northern Tasmania and areas between Perth and Bunbury.

East Coast Householders have received a letter from power generation suppliers
that their power bills will go by 25-30% from July 1st,and that is only the start under the Labor-Green govt.

^How much would the increase/s have been without government intervention?

• Green economy, security in focus as Indonesia, Australia leaders meet in Sydney

Widodo and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke to reporters after an annual leaders meeting, where a green economy and regional security were discussed. Widodo, who is in his second and final term in office, wants to build an electric vehicle battery production industry in Indonesia, which has the world's largest nickel reserves.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said strategic cooperation with Australia on electric vehicle batteries was a priority after talks with his Australian counterpart in Sydney on Tuesday. Widodo and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke to reporters after an annual leaders meeting, where a green economy and regional security were discussed.

Widodo has said in interviews that he is seeking cooperation from Australia, a major supplier of key battery component lithium. "Indonesia and Australia must build a more substantive and strategic economic cooperation through the joint production of EV batteries," Widodo told reporters after the leaders met.

Widodo told business leaders that Indonesia had high potential as an investment destination, and that the Southeast Asian nation had a target to produce 1 million electric cars and 3.2 million electric motorbikes by 2035. Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) signed an "action plan" with the state of Western Australia on critical mineral supply chain and worker skills, Indonesia's Ministry of Economic Affairs said.

Meanwhile, Albanese announced a A$50 million ($33 million) initiative to attract private climate finance to Indonesia, and said Export Finance Australia would establish a $200 million capital financing facility with PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to support Indonesia's energy transition.

________

• Australia won’t meet net zero goals without a national approach to home thermal efficiency: RMIT report

Improving the thermal performance in Australian homes is key to easing cost of living pressures and reducing energy consumption and emissions, according to a new RMIT University-led report.

The thermal performance of a home refers to how well a dwelling can be both energy efficient and comfortable for occupants during different seasons.

The report makes several recommendations, such as improving how new homes are built and how thermal upgrading of current homes is undertaken. Lead researcher Prof Priya Rajagopalan said:

A thermally efficient home is also an energy efficient one given that heating and cooling represents up to 50% of energy used.
A poorly constructed building shell uses more energy to keep people warm or cool, which leads to an increase in carbon emissions and expensive power bills.

____________

• Federal Government backs NSW renewable energy scheme

A joint scheme between the Federal and New South Wales governments aims to eliminate predicted energy shortfalls in the electricity network.

The Capacity Investment Scheme seeks to boost investment in firmed renewables — those with a maintained output from a typically intermittent power source, like wind or solar.

The Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) will more than double the firmed capacity to in the NSW Energy Roadmap’s firming tender.

Commonwealth funding will underwrite that investment for up to an additional 550MW of firmed capacity, bringing it to 930MW.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) forecasts an energy shortfall in 2028/29, but it will effectively be eliminated by almost one gigawatt of additional dispatchable capacity tipped to be delivered by CIS.

The NSW CIS will support grid-scale dispatchable generation and storage such as batteries, pumped hydro, or other dispatchable capacity.

Announcing the scheme on Thursday, Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said it will improve the security and reliability of the NSW grid, as well as put downward pressure on prices.

“Today’s announcement will drastically improve energy security with large-scale batteries and other zero-emission technology that can quickly dispatch cleaner, cheaper, renewable energy when it’s needed, like when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing,” he said.

While NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said any risks around grid reliability can be resolved by accelerating the development of a clean, reliable, consumer-focused energy system.

“The large number of proponents wanting to invest in New South Wales is a clear indication that we can transform our energy system,” she said.

It’s hope the scheme will unlock about $10bn in investment.

_________

• More electric car price cuts in Australia as sales soar

Australians will have three electric vehicle options under $40,000 after another automaker dropped the price of its next-generation car in the country.

GWM revealed plans to cut $4000 from the asking price of its Ora electric car on Wednesday, just weeks after the vehicle began arriving in the country.

The reduction will put the vehicle's price tag $1100 higher than the cheapest electric car launched in Australia, the BYD Dolphin, and $1000 more than its nearest rival, the MG4.

The price cut also arrived as Australia recorded its highest sales for electric cars, with the vehicles representing 8.8 per cent of all new models sold in June, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

GWM announced price cuts across its Ora electric vehicle range shortly after the cars arrived in showrooms, citing a fall in the cost of battery materials and "other factors".

The price reduction will bring the cost of its entry-level vehicle to $39,990.

"The costs of battery technology - the largest single contributing component in EV cost - has fallen recently due to lower raw material prices," the company said in a statement.

The announcement comes two weeks after the launch of Australia's cheapest electric vehicle, the BYD Dolphin, at $38,890, which is expected to arrive in Australia this October.

EV Direct chief executive Luke Todd said Australians had placed more than 1000 pre-orders for the Dolphin since its June 22 announcement.

The BYD brand will also launch "megastores" in Sydney and Brisbane to show off and demonstrate the vehicle and others from the brand, he said, as well as BYD Service and Fulfilment Centres.

__________

• Queensland clean energy set to boom with new support for landholders negotiating with renewable companies

Over the next decade in Queensland, about 22 gigawatts of additional renewable energy projects are expected to be built, generating energy to power about 6.6 million homes.

As the state pushes towards an 80 per cent renewable energy target by 2035, dozens of large-scale wind and solar projects are in the pipeline.

"We want to ensure that Queensland is an exemplar in the clean energy transition, not just for Australia but globally," Minister for Energy Mick de Brenni said.

"We know that many nations are considering imposing import restrictions on our agricultural sector exports, and so for our farming exports to remain competitive in the global market, we are seeing farmers respond by embracing the shift to clean energy."

But as the growth of wind and solar projects continues, so too does the competition for land.

With support from the state government, this week peak body the Queensland Farmers' Federation (QFF) released a new toolkit to better inform landholders and assist in negotiations with renewable energy companies.

"It's important communities have a say in what their communities look like in the next 10 to 20 years," QFF chief executive Jo Sheppard said.

Unlike coal and gas companies, who have a legal right to resources under private property, landholders have a right to decide whether or not to host a renewable project.

Landholders and communities who do host renewable projects stand to benefit from the initial economic boost during construction and via ongoing compensation agreements.

• Australia joins global Climate Club: time to match commitments with action

THE CLIMATE COUNCIL welcomes Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement that Australia will join the Climate Club, an international initiative focused on industrial decarbonisation and pursuing net zero emissions.

Climate Council Director of Research, Dr Simon Bradshaw, said: “Joining the Climate Club is a good move, but must be backed by stronger steps at home to phase out fossil fuels and build the clean industries of the future.

“International collaboration is key to achieving the emissions reductions we need to combat the climate crisis. But we need to see any new international partnerships backed with real action.”

The Climate Club was formed last year by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Other members include G7 countries – Germany, France, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, United States, European Union Council and Commission, as well as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

“The fact is Australia’s emissions reduction target remains weaker than Europe’s, the US, and other members of the Climate Club. We will now rightly see even more international pressure on Australia to up our game.

“The Climate Club aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. However, this is far too slow – we really should be aiming to achieve net zero by 2035.”

Climate Councillor and economist Nicki Hutley said: “It’s very much in Australia’s economic interests to join this club, to support and enhance the decarbonisation of our industries, to encourage other countries to do the same, and to keep 1.5 alive.”

Ms Hutley said Australia’s joining the Climate Club is symbolic of our reputational shift from a climate outlier and laggard to one that is now being welcomed back into the fold.

“Previously, at COP meetings, Australia was almost considered an outcast. Now, we’re welcomed by other nations. Despite making progress, we can and should accelerate our emissions reduction efforts, given our vast natural and financial resources.

“We mustn’t rest on our laurels, but we are certainly being welcomed into the international fold more than we have been for a long time.”

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• ANZ leads big four on climate-aligned banking: report

ANZ Banking Group is the leader among Australia's "big four" in reducing exposure to big polluters, according to an international report.

The report issued on Monday found ANZ was in front on scaling back exposure to companies that are unwilling to engage on climate change, compared to Westpac, NAB and CBA.

ANZ was also leading the Australian pack on backing green sectors, working more closely with clients that have begun the transition to net-zero carbon emissions, and vying for new low-carbon clients, according to the report by ratings and research firm Fitch.

In real estate, banks are financing energy efficiency through retrofits or by requiring minimum standards for new buildings, supporting renewable energy equipment, and promoting electrification of construction sites.

As the largest mortgage provider in Australia, CBA is working towards greening the power grid and full electrification of the home.

CBA is less clear about how to manage the climate and emissions exposure of its agribusiness clients, Fitch said.

Agriculture, where methane and nitrous oxide emissions are significant, is the toughest sector for banks for data gathering and emissions measurement, the report explained.

When it comes to getting their own house in order, most banks covered in the Asia-Pacific report have set targets for renewable energy to supply 100 per cent of their operations and to switch to an electric and hybrid-only vehicle fleet.

Across the region, more banks are setting 2030 and 2050 net-zero emissions targets - for coal, oil and gas producers and suppliers as well as top fossil fuel consumers.

In the power sector, banks are increasing loans to renewable energy producers and equipment manufacturers, electricity grid companies, and reducing thermal coal exposure.

Australia's major banks are part of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance founded in 2021, which represents about 40 per cent of global banking.

Members aim for net-zero lending and investment portfolios by 2050 and have milestones for 2030.

Westpac was the last of the Aussie majors to sign up to the alliance and has set interim targets for upstream oil and gas, thermal coal, power, cement production and commercial real estate.

NAB is working with its 100 top emitting customers on their climate transition plans, and two-thirds are "transition mature", the report said.

But many smaller companies are yet to collect data and think through the implications of climate change on their business.

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• Queensland identifies ‘renewable energy zones’ as part of $62bn ‘super grid’ plan

The Queensland government has identified 12 “renewable energy zones” across the state that will form the backbone of its $62bn plan to decarbonise its electricity supply.

In plans to be released on Tuesday, the Palaszczuk government says it wants wind, solar and pumped-hydro projects to be concentrated in these zones and connected to a “super grid” of renewable power, storage and transmission lines by 2035 – just 12 years from now.

Last year the state announced a target to generate 80% of its electricity from renewables by 2035 and to end its reliance on coal for power by the same year.

Queensland is Australia’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for almost a third of national emissions. Electricity generation makes up one-third of Queensland’s emissions.

Queensland’s minister for energy, renewables and hydrogen, Mick de Brenni, told the Guardian the new renewable energy zones would help secure community support for “the biggest economic transition project that Queensland has ever embarked upon”.

“Our nation needs Queensland to succeed,” he said. “There’s work to be done by governments to lead communities through a process and to develop that support for change.

“We want to establish Queensland’s transition as a best-practice case study for the nation.”

The 12 proposed zones are split into three regions. Southern Queensland is earmarked for five zones, with four in central Queensland and three in the north of the state.

About 22GW of new solar and wind projects will need to be connected by 2035 within the zones to meet its renewable targets, the government says.

The state currently has 16GW of electricity generation, including 8GW of coal and 3.6GW of utility-scale solar and wind.

By the end of the year, the Queensland government wants legislation put in place to allow the energy minister to designate the renewable energy zones. The government’s draft Renewable Energy Zone Roadmap sets out how the state will coordinate the massive effort, including establishing local consultation groups, expert panels and dedicated assessments of the potential for projects and jobs in each zone. It will be released for consultation on Tuesday.

“This hasn’t been done anywhere else to this level of sophistication,” said de Brenni. “The transition in Australia is 10 years behind where it needs to be.

“We’re taking deliberate steps to make sure we can meet our targets and our global obligations on time. This takes us from targets and concepts to real lines on maps and real projects, real contracts and real workers.”

In the state’s far north, concerns have been raised about windfarm developments in environmentally significant areas.

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• Australia nearing record amount of solar panel uptake to beat rising power prices, analysts say

Rooftop solar is on track for another near-record annual installation tally as households seek to beat rising power prices with new or bigger photovoltaic systems.

In the first six months of 2023, households and businesses added about 1.46 gigawatts of new solar capacity in small-scale systems, about a fifth higher than a year earlier, according to Green Energy Markets. For June alone, almost 250 megawatts of new capacity went on to rooftops, 13.2% more than for the same month in 2022.

Higher electricity prices in the past year have stoked demand for solar panels, the director of analysis and advisory at Green Energy Markets, Tristan Edis, said. With a further increase of as much as 25% being imposed from this month, 2021’s record for new capacity of about 3.2GW set in 2021 may come close to being broken.

“It’s tracking at the second highest it’s ever been,” Edis said. “I think it’s going to continue to be a robust year in terms of sales because of power prices … and by the end of the year, [new capacity] is probably going be similar to what it was in 2021.”

Australia has the world’s highest per-capita solar energy penetration, with almost one in three homes hosting PV panels. Even in winter, more than a quarter of the electricity used in the eastern states is being generated on rooftops during the peak of sunny days such as Tuesday, according to the OpenNEM website.

The ongoing strength of rooftop solar installations contrasts with the sharp slowdown in new investments for large-scale solar farms in recent years.

Rystad Energy, a data group, estimates approvals for utility-scale renewable projects sank by 75% since 2018 in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, with supply chain issues, transmission project delays and a lack of backup storage capacity to blame.

NSW was the state most affected by delays in project approvals, “putting it at real risk of not approving enough capacity in time to meet its 2030 target of 12GW of operational utility solar PV and wind”, Rystad said.

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• Major car rental firm swaps petrol for hybrids

One of Australia's biggest car rental firms has revealed it will offer only hybrid electric versions of passenger cars and SUVs in a bid to meet customer demand for more eco-friendly solutions.

Toyota-backed service Kinto announced its move away from traditional petrol vehicles on Friday, revealing its fleet would feature almost 500 hybrid cars.

The announcement comes in the same month Australia recorded a 40 per cent jump in new hybrid vehicle sales compared to June last year, with more than 9000 sold.

But Kinto's hybrid transition will not extend to light commercial vehicles, such as utes and vans, and will not yet see the company add battery electric options.

Kinto general manager Mark Ramsay said the company, which offers short and long-term rentals as well as car subscriptions, had seen customers increasingly choose greener cars.

"We started with a range of vehicles to test the market in March 2021 and we've seen the preference for hybrid vehicles," he said.

"In our most popular car, the (Toyota) Corolla, when we had petrol and hybrid models available, the hybrid was more popular and that confirmed our suspicion it was the right way to go."

Many motorists were renting hybrid vehicles to cut tailpipe emissions, he said, while others wanted to try out the technology before buying it themselves.

Mr Ramsey said Australian drivers were also getting more familiar with hybrid vehicles as the company was no longer fielding as many phone calls from baffled customers.

"At the beginning we were getting calls from people who hadn't used them before and were unsure of whether the vehicle was on because it was silent," he said.

"As they've become more popular, we've found that type of call is reducing."

Kinto's light commercial fleet is yet to go fully hybrid, however, and Toyota is not expected to release its first electric vehicle in Australia until late 2023.

Other national car firms renting electric and hybrid vehicles include Hertz, Evee, SIXT and Europcar, as well as car-sharing platforms Turo and Uber Carshare.

Kinto's hybrid vehicle commitment comes at a time of growing popularity for the vehicles, with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries reporting 9020 sales of new hybrid cars during June.

The figure represented a 40.6 per cent increase on June 2022, though the technology was not as popular as battery electric vehicles, which represented 11,042 new vehicle sales during the month.

Major car rental firm swaps petrol for hybrids

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• ACCC to compel companies to back up environmental claims with evidence

Companies should have evidence to back up claims they make about their environmental sustainability, according to draft guidelines developed by the competition watchdog in a bid to stamp out greenwashing.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published the draft guidance on Friday after its recent greenwashing internet sweep identified concerning practices ranging from overstating climate action to companies developing their own certification schemes.

That survey found 57% of the businesses reviewed were making potentially misleading environmental claims.

The draft guidelines propose eight principles that companies should follow if they choose to make environmental and sustainability claims to ensure they comply with Australian consumer law and so consumers can make informed decisions.

The principles include making accurate and truthful claims that don’t, for example, exaggerate the environmental benefit of actions taken by companies, and having clear, independent and scientific evidence to demonstrate to consumers that those claims can be trusted.

Another principle warns companies they should not omit or hide important information that would enable consumers to get a full picture of their practices.

For example, “highlighting the positive aspects of your product, service, or business while omitting information about the negative aspects”, which could give consumers the false impression a product or service had a lower environmental impact than it actually did.

The report points to a hypothetical case study of a plastic cosmetics pump bottle labelled “plastic free” but with small text on the back noting this only applied to the external bottle and not to the cap, pump or internal tube that sits inside the bottle.

“We did observe in the businesses that we swept late last year that there were situations which we thought were likely to be exaggerating benefits or understating harm or omitting relevant information,” the ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said.

Erin Turner, the chief executive of the Consumer Policy Research Centre, said the guidelines were necessary and an important first step to improve green claims made by Australian companies.

“What we want is for companies to give customers information that helps them compare options and make meaningful choices. That’s not happening now,” she said.

The centre conducted research last year that examined claims consumers saw in the Australian market every day and found many of them were “vague and unhelpful”.

Turner said this included the use of words such as “sustainable” or “eco” without promising a business was actually doing anything specific.

“The one that stood out to me was ‘our freezers are greener’,” she said.

Turner said in addition to guidelines, legislation was needed to require businesses to put more information into the market.

“We need claims that help people put options side by side and answer basic questions like, ‘how long will the product last’, ‘can I repair it’ and ‘is this better than another company’,” she said.

……….

The watchdog is seeking feedback from companies about what was practical and what information they needed so that businesses that were legitimately investing in sustainable practices could confidently make their claims.

Cass-Gottlieb said they also wanted feedback from consumers about what information would be helpful to assess claims about green credentials and how they would like to see that information and access it.

“False or misleading claims can undermine consumer trust in all green claims, particularly when consumers are often paying higher prices based on these claims,” she said.

“Similarly, businesses that are taking genuine steps to adopt sustainable practices are put at a competitive disadvantage by businesses that engage in ‘greenwashing’ without incurring the same costs.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australi...-with-evidence

Originally Posted by S Landreth

^How much would the increase/s have been without government intervention?

25-30%???

^open the link.........

AER’s chair, told ABC radio that the increases could have reached 50% without the federal imposition of price caps on gas and black coal last December that helped lower the wholesale component of electricity prices.

• Kane Thornton opening address to the Australian Clean Energy Summit

I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. I pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

They said it couldn't be done when John Howard set the original 10 per cent Renewable Energy Target at the turn of the century.

They said the 20 per cent renewable energy target couldn't be achieved by 2020. We smashed that.

They said a million rooftop solar systems would shut down the grid. Today there are 3.5 million.

They said we couldn't run the grid on more than 20 per cent wind and solar. Then they said 30 per cent would be impossible.

Now we are charging toward 50 per cent and aiming for 82 per cent by 2030.

They say it can't be done. The usual suspects – the cynics, vested interests, the fossils and the fools – leap forward the moment the going gets tough.

It's too ambitious. It would cost too much. There are better solutions, they say.

Nuclear power is the latest, but it won't be the last. A technology that has proven only to have enormous environmental impacts when it goes wrong, has no social license or community acceptance and is demonstrated to be many times more expensive than renewable energy and storage. Building it would take decades and require uncapped government underwriting and taxpayer subsidies.

Next-generation nuclear has not yet been invented or demonstrated and must be seen for what it is in Australia – another distraction promoted by bad-faith actors with no genuine interest in emissions reductions, energy security or lowering power prices.

If we had listened to them, we wouldn't have built the hydro schemes, a bridge over Sydney's harbour, or the overland telegraph that first connected us to the world. We wouldn't have Wifi. These are acts of courage and foresight that now define our nation.

Emission reductions of 43 per cent and renewable energy of 82 per cent by 2030 are ambitious for sure. But they set Australia up to become a global clean energy superpower, fundamentally modernising our economy and energy system to confront and leverage a new world order. They would create a new national identity and set us up as an economic powerhouse for centuries.

Granted, it won't be easy.

Little more in the link above

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• Barngarla people win court case to halt Kimba nuclear dump

The verdict came after an emotional six-year fight for the Barngarla people.

The Barngarla people are celebrating after the Federal Court set aside a decision to build a nuclear waste dump on their country at Kimba.

While Justice Natalie Charlesworth only upheld one of the four reasons for judicial review, that was enough for the Barngarla.

“It was important to stop this dump because the Seven Sisters Dreaming goes through there,” said Barngarla elder Aunty Dawn Taylor, who was born at Kimba.

“Having a waste dump out there would have just destroyed everything.”

The coalition government decided to build the dump at Napandee in November 2021, when it announced it had acquired 211 hectares of land with the proposed facility subject to heritage, design and technical studies.

The majority of nuclear waste produced in Australia is associated with the production of nuclear medicine.

The Barngarla native title area covers more than 34,000 square kilometres on Eyre Peninsula, including the town of Kimba.

Jason Bilney, chair of the Barngarla Aboriginal Determination Corporation, told AAP it had been an emotional six-year fight.

“Kimba is a crossroads for us Barngarla people and other First Nations people,” he said.

“It’s about empowering Barngarla people to stand up and be counted and to continue to fight, no matter what toll it takes, because it’s crucial to us and other First Nations people around Australia.”

“Stand up, speak up, and show up strong and proud for our community and for our past and present elders.”

“And don’t shut up,” Taylor added.

Justice Charlesworth said she would not make any dispositive orders on the judicial review until both sides had the opportunity to read her judgement.

But, she said, the only appropriate order was to set aside the whole of the declaration regarding the proposed facility by former resources minister Keith Pitt.

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• Wind and solar remain cheapest new sources of power, even after inflation hit

Renewable energy remains Australia’s cheapest option for new sources of electricity but cost pressures are eating into capital, the national science agency says.

Modelling released on Tuesday shows renewables construction and installation costs rising by one-fifth on average, but the energy source remains more cost effective than new gas or coal plants.

The inflation warning comes as energy ministers, industry leaders and financiers gather for a two-day energy expo and summit in Sydney.

The modelling by the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) marks the first time all technology costs have increased from the previous year since the annual guide began in 2018.

Costs for Australian projects began to inflate in 2020 as the pandemic hit, making freight and raw materials more expensive, and the Russian war in Ukraine has further disrupted supply chains.

But the global race to clean up the world’s biggest source of emissions – burning fossil fuels to produce electricity – is adding further to the costs of renewable energy projects.

CSIRO chief energy economist Paul Graham said input costs are showing signs of moderating.

“However there is an expected delay due to future price uncertainties and the robust demand associated with the global energy transition,” he said.

Like solar technology, wind costs should come down as more turbines go up, given greater global climate policy ambition and deployment.

In contrast, new fossil-fuel generation risks higher financing costs over time because of government targets for net-zero emissions by 2050 or before.

Technology costs have mostly peaked and the risk of cost pressures extending beyond 2030 will be mitigated as global manufacturing ramps up, according to the GenCost report.

However, some in the industry say the price bubble will become a permanent feature, and will strengthen.

Globally, renewables – led by wind and solar – are the fastest growing energy source, which is putting further pressure on global supply chains.

The report found costs for Australia’s big batteries have increased by 13 per cent for one-hour storage and up to 28 per cent for eight-hour duration batteries.

Onshore wind project costs have risen by more than one-third (up to 35 per cent).

But cost increases were as low as nine per cent for rooftop solar and solar farms.

Floating offshore wind data was added, with international proponents vying to build in world-class winds off the coast of Victoria.

The modelling also confirmed grid-scale energy storage and car batteries are set to play a crucial role.

AEMO head of system design Merryn York said the data is crucial for planning the least-cost investments needed to fill the gap left by the exit of coal.

“And as more variable renewables delivers our energy for consumers, and decarbonisation, we need investment in firming – which is on-demand energy to smooth out the peaks and troughs,” she said.

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• Clean energy gets dirty as politics of transition flare

As the nation's clean energy industry ramps up to join the global race to build new power sources, a cabinet minister has reignited the decades-long climate wars in Australia.

Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday overshadowed a long-awaited and important announcement about sector-by-sector net-zero plans by taking a swing at his political opponents.

A "cabal of climate denial" was running policy in the federal coalition, he told business leaders and financiers at an energy summit in Sydney.

Mr Bowen accused leader Peter Dutton of being "the alternative prime minister from the alt-right", referring to the political movement linked to American far-right, white supremacists.

"The man who joked about water lapping at the homes of Pacific Islanders has not improved," Mr Bowen said.

"Scott Morrison was a terrible prime minister for climate change ... Peter Dutton would be worse."

Mr Bowen dismissed Nationals leader David Littleproud's call for a pause on the rollout of transmission lines, and accused LNP MPs Keith Pitt and Colin Boyce of also spreading "fear and falsities" about renewable energy.

Opposition climate and energy spokesman Ted O'Brien hit back, slamming federal Labor's plan to spend the next 18 months figuring out the details of getting various industries to net-zero emissions.

"To use an industry event to attempt spiteful personal character assassinations is completely inappropriate," he said, after attending the Clean Energy Council event.

The industry council's CEO Kane Thornton opened the two-day summit with a rallying cry against naysayers.

"Emissions reductions of 43 per cent and renewable energy of 82 per cent by 2030 are ambitious for sure," he said.

It won't be easy after a decade of "an aversion to anything that looked like sensible, consistent energy policy and forward planning", Mr Thornton said.

Australia was losing the global clean energy investment race, with the United States and its hefty subsidies becoming a magnet for capital, workers and technology.

But the local industry was "race-ready, we are fit, and our potential is limitless," Mr Thornton said.

"We now need courage and leadership to become a global clean energy superpower.

"Oh, and to ignore anyone who tells you it can't be done."

Electrification will be crucial for heavy polluters to meet their climate pledges but the suburbs and shires of Australia will also be key.

"When someone shifts from grid power dominated by coal to rooftop solar, or from a petrol to electric car, they do more than change an energy source," said Dan Cass, spokesman for grassroots organisation Rewiring Australia.

"They permanently lower their emissions and energy bills, and they never look back."

More in the article: Clean energy gets dirty as politics of transition flare

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• GenCost: annual electricity cost estimates for Australia

GenCost 2022-23: wind and solar remain the lowest cost new build energy generation sources despite inflationary pressures

Renewables, led by wind and solar, maintain their position as Australia’s cheapest new-build electricity generation despite a 20 per cent average rise in technology costs.

The 2022-23 report marks the first time that all technology costs have increased from the previous year since GenCost commenced in 2018.

GenCost is an annual collaboration between CSIRO and the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) that actively consults industry stakeholders to revise domestic electricity generation and storage, as well as hydrogen production costs.

The latest report highlights industry concerns that the rapid pace of the global energy transition will contribute to escalating cost pressures. This is attributed to the immense scale of manufacturing, raw materials and labour required to develop and deploy clean energy technologies consistent with net zero goals.

GenCost analyses also found that:

• Technology cost rises were not uniform due to variations in material inputs and exposure to freight prices
• Globally, renewables led by wind and solar are the fastest growing energy source
• Batteries are set to play a crucial role in supporting both variable renewable generation in the electricity sector and the rapid expansion of electric vehicle deployment in transport.

[email protected]- Nuclear energy, even the nascent small modular reactor type, is the most expensive form of new generation, @CSIRO says in its latest report. https://csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/energy/Energy-data-modelling/GenCost: https://twitter.com/p_hannam/status/1681497414828695553

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Extra.

Fortunately, there’s cooler weather at this time of year.

• Marine heatwave off north-east Australia sets off alarm over health of Great Barrier Reef

A marine heatwave has broken out along more than 2,000km of the Queensland coast, raising concerns for the health of corals on the Great Barrier Reef and other ocean life.

Satellite data managed by the US National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) shows the heatwave started to emerge at the end of June.

About 1m sq km of ocean north-east of the continent are now under heatwave conditions, the data shows.

Experts said the heatwave could increase the risk of coral disease and would probably affect fish populations that would need to work harder to find food under warmer conditions.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...t-barrier-reef

• Victoria announces ban on gas connections to new homes from January 2024

Gas connections will be banned in new homes and government buildings built in Victoria from next year.

The announcement has been backed by environmental groups and the property and construction sectors but the opposition has warned the change could increase household energy bills fuelled by higher demand for electricity.

The Victorian government announced the major energy reform on Friday as part of its plan to reach net zero emissions in the state by 2045.

The government estimates the change will save households up to $1,000 on their annual energy bills – or $2,200 if they have solar installed – and reduce emissions.

From 1 January, new residential properties that require planning permits, as well as government buildings including schools and hospitals, will only be powered by electricity.

The state’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the changes would help a new homeowner to save on their energy bills.

“We know the cost of living for Victorians is getting bigger and bigger,” she told reporters on Friday. “Doing something about it is exactly what today is about.”

Environment Victoria said the changes showed gas had “no future” in the state.

“Gas is an expensive and polluting fossil fuel,” Environment Victoria’s chief executive, Jono La Nauze, said on Friday. “The long-term trend is that gas prices will keep rising whilst renewable electricity gets cheaper. It simply makes no sense to keep connecting new homes to the energy source of the past.”

The Greens backed the reform but said the benefits would be undermined by the government’s backing of coal and gas projects such as gas drilling near the Twelve Apostles. The change was supported by the Climate Council, the Clean Energy Council, Friends of the Earth Melbourne and the Energy Efficiency Council.

Property Council and Master Builders welcome change

It was also supported by the Property Council of Australia, whose national policy director, Frankie Muskovic, said the ban on gas connections provided certainty to the industry as it moves towards “zero-carbon-ready buildings”.

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• Chris Bowen on why nuclear isn't in its energy mix

Nuclear energy has never been part of Australia’s energy mix as it has abundant renewables, according to Australia’s minister for climate change and energy.

“I’m not here to tell other countries what to do. Nuclear plays a role in various countries’ mix, but in Australia, it never has,” Chris Bowen told CNBC on the sidelines of the G20 energy ministers meeting in Goa, India.

“Wherever you look, there’s issues from our point of view with nuclear energy,” he said, outlining problems that can come from adopting nuclear energy.

Apart from being extremely expensive, it generates large amounts of waste and is an inflexible energy source, he told CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah on Saturday.

Furthermore, Australia will be starting from “worse than scratch” since it never had a nuclear industry in the first place, he said.

Renewable energy is the way to go

To keep the lights on, Australia will have to “double down” on its investments in renewable energy, storage and transmission, the Australian minister said.

“We have such abundant renewables … Vladimir Putin can’t turn off the sun or the wind, [but] he can turn off the gas pipeline,” Bowen said referring to the Russian president, who has cut off gas supplies to Europe in retaliation against Western sanctions imposed as a result of the unprovoked war in Ukraine.

“For those countries that are blessed with abundant renewables, harnessing those renewables, increasing their share of our energy mix, and then exporting as much as possible in due course, is vital for national security as well.”

Australia’s renewable energy sector has made steady improvements in the last few years.

Renewable energy accounted for 35.9% of the country’s total electric generation in 2022, more than double from what it was in 2017 at 16.9%, according to a report by the country’s Clean Energy Council.

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Extra:

• Australia’s nuclear waste is scattered in ‘cupboards and filing cabinets’ – and the pile is growing

More than 20 tonnes of reprocessed nuclear fuel will stay at Australia’s only reactor in southern Sydney, while nuclear waste will remain scattered in “cupboards and filing cabinets” around the country, after the federal court blocked plans for a long-term storage site in outback South Australia.

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• Wholesale electricity prices down almost 60% a year on from Australia’s short-lived energy crisis

Emissions from Australia’s main electricity grid dropped more than 6% in the June quarter from a year ago to a record low for the period, and wholesale prices stabilised, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) said.

For the June quarter, wholesale power prices averaged $108 per megawatt hour on the national electricity market (NEM), down almost 60% from the same period a year ago when the market was suspended during a short-lived energy crisis.

Still the prices were almost a third higher than in the March quarter of this year. Aemo downplayed the impact of the closure of the Liddell power station in the New South Wales Hunter Valley in April, saying black coal-fired plants actually offered more output for the quarter.

The rise of renewable energy, particularly rooftop solar, increasingly nudged out fossil fuels from the grid. Both black and brown coal power plants reported lower utilisation rates during the quarter.

“Increased market share of lower marginal-cost renewables helped push down the wholesale electricity cost from [the June quarter of] 2022, despite this quarter having the highest Q2 underlying demand recorded since 2016,” said Violette Mouchaileh, an Aemo executive general manager.

“Rooftop solar generation increased 30% from Q2 2022,” Mouchaileh said. “Coupled with higher renewable output, wholesale prices were zero or negative [for] 9% of the quarter throughout the NEM, a new Q2 record.”

The electricity industry remains Australia’s biggest source of greenhouse emissions but has more competitive low-carbon alternatives than other sectors. During the quarter, emissions from the NEM – which serves about 80% of the population – dropped 6.6% from a year earlier to 28.7m tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent.

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We've recognised that climate change is a national security issue

• Doorstop interview - Ulladulla | Prime Minister of Australia

TRANSCRIPT - 25 Jul 2023 - Prime Minister - Recovery from Black Summer bushfires; Bushfire prevention

JOURNALIST: Can I take you back to the bushfires? Obviously, the horrific scenes from Europe are really triggering to people on the South Coast. What guarantee can you give to this community that they won't see a Black Summer this season? With the policy shifts that you've made, have you made any that will prevent what we've seen happen?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think the community is sensible enough to know that that is a question, quite frankly, that you're asking me to defy science. No politician who's serious can stand and say that they can guarantee that there will never be a natural disaster again in this country, which is what your question goes to. I think what people want is governments to be practical, to respond in an orderly way, to do what they can in the short term, which is what we're doing by providing a national large air tanker to supplement the New South Wales fleet, to implement the new Australian Fire Danger ratings system that we've done, to provide resources to ensure that communities can respond as quickly as possible, to have that meeting of state Emergency Ministers and to make sure that we undertake fuel load reduction strategies as soon as possible. We need to do all of that. But the other thing they need to do is to take climate change seriously. We have seen potentially the two hottest days on record in Europe in recorded history this week. This week. This is what has occurred. This is something that the former government denied, prevaricated, dissembled, for ten years. They had 22 energy policies and didn't land one. You know what we're doing? We have one policy. We landed it. It has proper targets, with a plan through the safeguard mechanism to get there, with whole-of-government responses to make sure that we deal with the challenges of climate change. And we also recognise that one nation state can't do it by themselves. That's why we're engaged with the world. I'll be at the ASEAN meeting and the G20, where we'll talk about climate change. We've recognised that climate change is a national security issue as well, as has the United States, as has the United Kingdom, as has the European Union, as have countries in our region as well.

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• Guardian Australia asked seven leading climate scientists to describe how they felt as much of the northern hemisphere is engulfed by blistering heatwaves, and a number of global land and ocean climate records are broken.

‘History will judge them very harshly’

I still recall reading the 1985 Villach conference report, alerting the scientific community to the possible link between greenhouse gas production and climate change. In 1988, I directed the Australian Commission for the Future and worked with CSIRO’s Graeme Pearman on Greenhouse ‘88, a program to draw public attention to what the science was showing.

Now all the projected changes are happening, so I reflect on how much needless environmental damage and human suffering will result from the work of those politicians, business leaders and public figures who have prevented concerted action. History will judge them very harshly.

• Prof Ian Lowe, emeritus professor in the School of Science at Griffith University and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation

‘This should cause us concern’

It is distressing to see the widespread damage caused by the current outbreak of extreme events in many parts of the globe. Unfortunately, they are not a one-off but part of a longer trend fuelled by human greenhouse gas emissions. So they are not unexpected.

Worryingly, it is clear that future extremes will again break records and cause even greater damage. In particular, this is because the damage in many cases is nonlinear – it rises more and more quickly for each increment of climate change. This should cause us concern. It rationally should cause us to step back and assess what is in our economic, social and environmental interests. The IPCC has done this and the assessment is clear: it is in our interest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rapidly, substantially and in a sustained way.

It is also in our interest to put in place large and integrated programs for climate adaptation to deal with the climate change impacts we can’t avoid. Taking action to reduce emissions and to adapt to climate change will give us hope. Do we really want the alternative?

• Professor Mark Howden, director of the Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University

‘I am stunned by the ferocity’

What is playing out all over the world right now is entirely consistent with what scientists expect. No one wants to be right about this. But if I’m honest, I am stunned by the ferocity of the impacts we are currently experiencing. I am really dreading the devastation I know this El Niño will bring. As the situation deteriorates, it makes me wonder how I can be most helpful at a time like this. Do I keep trying to pursue my research career or devote even more of my time to warning the public? The pressure and anxiety of working through an escalating crisis is taking its toll on many of us.

• Dr Joëlle Gergis, senior lecturer in climate science Fenner School of Environment and Society, associate investigator ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the Australian National University

The other 4 are in the link. https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...limate-experts

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• PM Chris Hipkins and Australian PM Anthony Albanese praise trans-Tasman bond

Hipkins said they agreed today on a "bilateral roadmap setting out our shared ambition for cooperation over the next decade".

It would focus on sustainable, inclusive economies, on being active partners in the Pacific, championing international rules and ensuring people to people links would continue to grow, Hipkins said.

There was immense opportunity for NZ and Australia to strengthen cooperation on climate change, he said. Hipkins acknowledged Australia's shift in its climate change policy in the last year and they discussed that today.

"We believe working together to combat climate change globally and especially in our region is critical."

It was the single biggest threat to the livelihoods and wellbeing of Pacific partners, and both Australia and NZ were experiencing the effects of climate change now, he said.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political...ns-tasman-bond

• Climate crisis: Australia must ready for ‘devastating’ regional disruption, MPs told

Australia must prepare for “devastating” climate-fuelled disruption in the Asia Pacific, including failed states, forced migration and regional conflicts over water shortages, a stark briefing for federal politicians warns.

The Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration thinktank has summarised the potential threats and impacts of the climate crisis in a note targeted at MPs.

Breakthrough is seeking to galvanise political debate on the scale of the challenges posed, as the findings of a recent threat assessment by Australia’s Office of National Intelligence (ONI) remain classified.

In a paper to be released on Thursday, the thinktank says the ONI report is “likely to have said that the world is dangerously off track to meet the Paris Agreement goals, the risks are compounding and the impacts will be devastating in the coming decades”.

“In the Asia-Pacific region, states will fail and climate impacts will drive political instability, greater national insecurity and forced migration, and fuel conflict,” the paper says.

“There will likely be a further retreat to authoritarian and hyper-nationalist politics, the diminution of instruments of regional cooperation, and increased risks of regional conflict, including over shared water resources from the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, encompassing India, Pakistan, China and south-east Asian nations.”

Prepared by Breakthrough research director David Spratt, the note acknowledges projections are difficult to make because the physical impacts of climate change and the system-level changes “compound and cascade” in a nonlinear way.

“What we do know is that there will be outcomes that virtually no one will see coming, such as happened when drought and desertification in eastern Syria compounded with the dynamics of the Arab Spring to unleash the Syrian war.”

Spratt’s paper said while the consequences remained uncertain, it was possible to prepare “a sketch of some plausible outcomes before mid-century in the Asia-Pacific”.

They may include severe economic jolts caused by conflict and labour displacement, as well as the “inundation and destruction of economic infrastructure, and disruption to supply chains, including in the South China Sea”.

The paper suggested “a worsening of extreme and concurrent climate events with impacts beyond the response capacity of national governments”, which could result in China taking on a bigger role in responding to events in vulnerable states, “especially as Australia’s disaster relief capacity is underfunded and overwhelmed”.

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• Australian electric vehicle sales in first half of 2023 already higher than all of 2022, report says

Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular among Australians, with sales during the first half of 2023 already eclipsing last year’s annual total, though the industry has warned a federal policy vacuum continues to harm consumer choice.

The Electric Vehicle Council has also singled out the Victorian government as having “the world’s worst” approach to taxing EV ownership in its report on the state of the industry to be released on Monday.

From January to June this year, 8.4% of new car sales in Australia were electric. In 2022, just 3.8% of new vehicle sales were electric.

The 46,624 EVs sold in the first six months of the year take the number of EVs on Australian roads to roughly 130,000 – made up of about 109,000 battery powered cars and 21,000 hybrids – according to estimates from the Electric Vehicle Council.

However, uptake has varied considerably between regions. EV sales have been strongest in the Australian Capital Territory, where 21.8% of new cars sold so far this year were electric, followed by 9% in New South Wales and Tasmania, 8.5% in Victoria, 7.7% in Queensland, 7.5% in Western Australia, 6.5% in South Australia and 2.4% in the Northern Territory.

Market share is also heavily limited. Just three vehicles – Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3, and the BYD Atto 3 – account for more than 68% of the market in Australia. While there are 91 different electric cars, vans and utes on the market in Australia, most have very limited supply.

Every new electric car often sells out within hours of coming on to the market, Behyad Jafari, the Electric Vehicle Council’s chief executive, said.

He estimated demand for EVs was double the actual sales figures, but consumers frequently placed orders that went unfulfilled and ultimately opted for a standard car instead due to the wait.

Jafari said the lack of supply of EVs was a direct result of Australia’s lack of a new fuel-efficiency standard.

Fuel-efficiency standards set by governments limit emissions from cars by creating a cap of carbon emissions across a manufacturer’s overall sales. This provides an incentive for manufacturers to supply low and zero-emissions vehicles and penalises companies that fail to do so.

The Albanese government has promised, but not yet introduced, a fuel efficiency standard.

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• Zali Steggall calls on government to respond to escalating climate threat

31 July 2023

I have written to the government, together with other members of the crossbench, Zoe Daniel, Allegra Spender, Kylea Tink, Helen Haines, Kate Chaney, David Pocock, Sophie Scamps, Monique Ryan and Andrew Wilke to call on the government to respond to the escalating climate threat.

Dear Prime Minister and Minister Bowen

We, the undersigned, are writing in response to the increasingly dire news globally on climate change. On Friday morning, the Secretary General of the United Nations warned that we have progressed beyond global warming and are now in a period of global boiling. He warned of unbreathable air and unbearable temperatures to come.

We call on the government to:

1. Respond publicly to the global evidence of increasing warming;
2. Urgently update policy settings to reflect the reality that we must do everything possible to end Australia’s contribution to global boiling;
3. Cease approving new fossil fuel projects; and
4. Develop a national adaptation plan to build resilience against the climate impacts already being felt and their increasing intensity and frequency

Full letter:
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/bra...pdf?1690764762

https://www.zalisteggall.com.au/zali...climate_threat

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• Australia, UK Jointly Fund Renewable Hydrogen Initiative

The Australian and United Kingdom (UK) governments have announced a joint funding call to accelerate green hydrogen projects.

Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Grant Shapps announced a new joint initiative at a Green Hydrogen Roundtable during the 14th Clean Energy Ministerial and 8th Mission Innovation Meeting in Goa, India.

Both countries will provide funding for Australian and British companies to work together on research, development or demonstration projects on renewable hydrogen.

The new arrangement is part of a broader push by the Australian Government to work with like-minded countries to build supply chains, enhance investment and shape global markets for clean energy technologies.

The agreement will build on a clean energy partnership between Australia and the UK developed in 2021. It will focus on renewable hydrogen and its applications to decarbonise industry and transport. International collaboration is essential in helping to achieve our hydrogen ambitions with the required urgency and deliver a net zero transition for both economies.

The program will be launched in October 2023.

https://www.miragenews.com/australia...rogen-1056750/

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• Unesco recommends against Great Barrier Reef ‘in danger’ listing but Australia warned more action needed

UN scientific advisors have recommended the Great Barrier Reef not be placed on a list of world heritage sites “in danger” but stressed the planet’s biggest coral reef system remains under “serious threat” from global heating and water pollution.

Unesco said in a report that the Australian government had taken positive steps to protect the reef since a UN monitoring mission visited Queensland in March last year.

But Unesco has in effect put Australia on notice, as it recommended the government provide a progress report in February before the reef is considered for inscription on the “in danger” list again in 2024.

The government said the report was confirmation it was acting on climate change and “working hard to protect the reef, and that the rest of the world has taken notice”.

The report’s recommendations – including a set of “draft decisions” – will be considered at the 21-country world heritage committee’s September meeting in Saudi Arabia, which currently chairs the committee.

Last year’s UN mission report listed several steps the federal and state governments should make to protect the reef, including accelerating improvements to water quality, a faster rollout out to the state’s sustainable fishing strategy and the removal of gillnets from the park.

That report also said the government should have “clear commitments” to cut greenhouse gas emissions “consistent with the efforts required to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.”

Since the UN mission in March, the report said the Albanese government had legislated an improved target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 and to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

Experts have said Australia’s latest 2030 target is not consistent with a global goal of keeping global heating to 1.5C.

Despite saying the efforts by the state and federal government should be “noted with appreciation”, the report also says the reef “remains under serious threat and urgent and sustained action” was needed “to improve the long-term resilience of the [reef].”

The Unesco report, which includes input from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was positive about commitments from Australia to spend $1.2bn to reduce nutrients and fertilisers running into the reef’s waters.

But a “drastic shift” was needed to reach water quality targets for fine sediment and dissolved nitrogen. On water quality “progress remains slow”, the report said.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...esco-australia

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• Senator Nita Green - This decision is welcome news for the regional communities in QLD where the Reef supports local jobs and economies.

Our Govt knows there’s still work to be done. We will continue to fight to protect the Reef for generations to come. https://twitter.com/nitagreenqld/sta...09843055337475

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• Experts demand new reef plan with rising climate threat

Australia's plan to protect the Great Barrier Reef won't cut it in the era of climate change and another approach is urgently needed, an expert panel says.

Independent scientists who advise the federal and Queensland governments on the existing Reef 2050 Plan say a radical shift is needed to help the World Heritage site.

"Management of the (reef) will need to change; it cannot be business as usual; it cannot be the priorities and investments outlined today; it cannot be spending money because that is where it is spent today," the governments were told.

Panel chair and former Australian chief scientist Ian Chubb said existing approaches weren't flexible enough to cope with the pace of global warming and he warned of difficult choices ahead.

"Decision-making for conservation and sustainable use of the (reef) will need to be more selective and questions need to be asked, such as which region/s should be the focus of attention - which reefs, which corals, which species, which ecosystems?'' Prof Chubb wrote.

The Australian Academy of Science expressed similar concerns in a report published on Thursday.

It said potentially irreversible climate impacts were likely for the reef by about 2050, even if emissions stabilised.

"Currently, policy is taking time to catch up," the academy said after being asked by the government to provide advice to the panel.

"The speed of intervention will likely increase and regulators need to be able to keep pace."

The academy also noted "a lack of political will to implement the regulations and laws allows upstream activities that are in opposition to the intent of existing laws, ultimately negatively impacting the (reef)".

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/sto...limate-threat/

Having kept tabs, could you post a .... résumé?

• Origin teams with Coles on 20 MW solar and battery rollout

Origin Energy and supermarket giant Coles have partnered to deploy 20 MW of solar at up to 100 supermarkets and liquor stores throughout Australia in a deal that will allow the energy gentailer to use excess electricity generated by the installs to ease pressure on the grid during peak demand periods.

Origin and Coles have signed an agreement to co-invest in 20 MW of solar, plus battery energy storage systems, and enable demand management by connecting the assets to Origin’s in-house virtual power plant (VPP).

Over the next three years, Coles aims to install 20 MW of solar panels on top of 100 of its stores across Australia, with battery energy storage systems to be installed at about one third of those stores to capture and store excess renewable electricity generated on-site.

Origin Zero Executive General Manager James Magill said Coles’ rooftop solar, batteries, and other controllable energy assets such as in-store heating, cooling and refrigeration systems will be connected to Origin’s VPP, with excess generation used to help ease pressure on the grid during peak periods of demand.

“This is a landmark alliance between two of Australia’s leading retailers across supermarkets and energy which will see the companies co-invest in renewable energy and battery assets to help deliver greater emissions reductions for Coles,” Magill said.

“This also marks Origin’s largest customer aggregation agreement providing frequency control ancillary services (FCAS), allowing us to orchestrate 10 MW of flexible energy use across heating, cooling and refrigeration assets at select Coles stores, which helps to support stable and safe operations of the grid.”

The installation of solar panels is currently underway at six Victorian stores, with Coles anticipating that 20 sites will be completed by next year with installs at all 100 stores to be completed by 2026.

Coles Head of Energy Jane Mansfield said the benefits of the initiative, which builds on the rooftop solar already installed on 87 of the retailer’s Australian stores, will go beyond reducing the group’s electricity consumption from the grid.

“Not only will this investment in renewables help us reduce our emissions, it will also lower our operational costs and allow us to meet more of our energy needs from our own on-site solar generation,” she said.

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• Interview with Hamish MacDonald, Breakfast, ABC Radio National

HAMISH MACDONALD: So, for those listening this morning trying to understand what you mean by all of this, are you saying we might actually make these batteries in Australia in the future, or we'd make components of those batteries and then look at the end of the supply chain when they've been finished with?

ED HUSIC: That's exactly what I'm saying. We are looking at what we can do, what it will take to stand up cell manufacture in Australia, because at the moment we're thoroughly dependent largely on one country, that's China, to get a lot of this material. But there are other parts of the world where they've been able to work this out and be able to start moving on this. We want to be able to do the same.

We've got a lot of people, very smart people that are working on this and, as I said, our own CRC is saying there's a lot of scope for us to do it. So we're working through in terms of the development of the national battery strategy. We've done a lot of consultations with industry talking that through.

Our National Reconstruction Fund will have a target fund within it for value adding and resources of about a billion that's available there, plus what we've got on offer for energy for the manufacture of zero or low emissions technology. So we want to move the capital in, train people up, get our thinking very clear and precise on where we need to go and not miss the opportunities that are there.

As everyone often remarks, we contributed to the development of solar panels that then got manufactured by other countries and we missed out on the value add that we could have done, and we're determined not to miss that opportunity and to see what we can do here.


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• Victorian electricity transmission charges could more than double if Australia’s longest power line proceeds

Victorians face a more than doubling of transmission charges on electricity bills if the state government proceeds with plans for what is likely to be the most costly and longest single power line in Australia’s history, a thinktank says in a new report.

The report by the Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) argues the proposed 500 kilovolt VNI West transmission line linking Melbourne’s outskirts with Wagga Wagga on an 800km path will be far costlier than alternatives and faces extensive landholder opposition. It also will not solve grid bottlenecks holding back new solar and windfarms in the state.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo), which first proposed VNI West as a $2.7bn project in 2018 and is Victoria’s main planner for transmission, estimated users’ transmission charges would need to rise by a quarter. That assessment, though, was based on 2021 prices and ignored interest costs that have since soared.

The report estimates the Victorian portion of the line alone will cost $4.9bn in current dollars. Add in a further $3bn needed for upgrades to the existing 220kV networks to integrate VNI West, and the full cost could swell to $11bn and lift Victorians’ transmission charges by at least 124%.

“The cost has blown out again and again and again,” said Bruce Mountain, the VEPC’s director and one of the report’s authors. “Aemo rightfully should long since have said, ‘We need to think again, this is not getting anywhere.’”

The falling price of renewables has offered nations endowed with lots of wind and sunshine potentially low-cost ways to decarbonise their economies. However, planning the transition is proving to be challenging, while the global rush to introduce new technologies to head off global heating means equipment prices are rocketing.

Victoria’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the government would consider the report “but rigorous analysis by Aemo shows that VNI-West provides value to Victorian energy consumers, helping to keep the lights on across the state as our ageing coal-fired generators close”.

“New transmission is vital for securing affordable and reliable renewable energy for Victorians – these projects will form part of the national electricity grid, allowing 3.4GW of new renewable generation to be built in Victoria,” D’Ambrosio said, adding that state agency Vicgrid was “already providing greater oversight of the [Western Renewables Link] and VNI West projects”.

Merryn York, an Aemo executive general manager, said the agency had addressed the centre’s claims previously. Such reports created “on-going confusion and concern for landholders and communities”.

“Our consultation process for VNI West involved hundreds of stakeholders to identify a preferred option that is forecast to deliver $1.4bn in net market benefits, and harness 3,400 megawatts of renewable generation in Victoria – enough to meet the annual electricity needs for approximately 2.3m homes,” she said.


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• A quarter of Queensland’s energy now generated from renewables

A quarter of Queensland’s energy is now being generated by renewables and the state is on track to hit 50% within seven years, the state’s energy minister says.

Mick de Brenni said the clean energy supply had jumped by 20% over the past 12 months and more than 25% of the state’s power was now generated by renewables.

He said that once renewables “dominate the wholesale electricity market” the state would see long-term reductions in wholesale power prices.

“But we can only do this by transitioning away from coal and gas generation, which continues to set the wholesale electricity market and drive electricity prices up for Queenslanders.”

De Brenni said Queensland was “on track” to reach its legislated target of 50% of energy to be renewable-generated by 2030, followed by 70% by 2032 and 80% by 2035.

Queensland is Australia’s biggest coal producer, and the country’s biggest carbon emitter, but the government has plans to change that.

Di Brenni last month announced a $62bn blueprint to decarbonise the energy supply including plans for wind, solar, pumped hydro and eventually hydrogen to take over from fossil fuels.

The state government has spent an estimated $11.1bn on renewable energy since coming to office in 2015, with the supply of renewables growing by 250% in that period.

More than 800,000 Queensland rooftops have solar and the state has 52 large-scale solar projects and 12 renewable energy zones.

It’s expected the state will connect a further 682MW of new clean generation before Christmas this year.

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• Greens push Labor to release declassified climate crisis report ‘full of explosive truths’

The Albanese government is facing calls to release a declassified version of a secret report into the security threats caused by the climate crisis, in the same way it released the defence strategic review.

The Greens are seeking to use a Senate procedure to push for transparency, saying the security report will help parliamentarians to “weigh up predicted wars, water shortages and supply chain collapses against every new coal and gas approval”.

The party has given notice that it will move a motion in the Senate on Monday to produce documents within one month.

The notice demands that the government release a declassified version of an Office of National Intelligence report that was originally handed to the government in late 2022.

The acting leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, said Labor was “sitting on a report full of explosive truths” and the public deserved to know the projected impacts.

“If the White House can release the US’s National Intelligence Assessment and assessments by the Pentagon, the prime minister should be able to release a declassified version of the Office of National Intelligence’s climate risk assessment for Australia,” she said.

The US report, released in 2021, warned: “Intensifying physical effects will exacerbate geopolitical flashpoints, particularly after 2030, and key countries and regions will face increasing risks of instability and need for humanitarian assistance.”

The US intelligence community further warned that the US and its partners “face costly challenges that will become more difficult to manage without concerted effort to reduce emissions and cap warming”.

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• Darwin Parents Urge Government to Withdraw Gas Support in Canberra

A delegation of Northern Territory parents has arrived in Canberra to call on the federal government to withdraw its support for expanding the NT's gas industry, particularly fracking in the Beetaloo Basin and the associated processing plant at Middle Arm.

Senator Malarndirri McCarthy will host the members of Australian Parents for Climate Action (AP4CA) as they meet with federal government ministers to present an open letter and a book of photos, childrens' drawings and messages from Territorians concerned about the impact of fracking and large industrial projects in the NT.

Mother of one Alice Nagy, of Rapid Creek, said she felt compelled to make the trip to speak up on behalf of the children of the Northern Territory, and to demonstrate that the gas industry does not have universal support in her community.

"Our children are the most vulnerable section of our society, and politicians at all levels of government need to put them at the heart of all their decision making," Ms Nagy said.

"As parents we want to have confidence that our elected decision makers are listening to expert advice and scientific consensus when they make any decisions, but especially when it comes to approving fossil fuel projects and large industrial developments such as those we are faced with in the NT"

Kat McNamara, of Coconut Grove, is pregnant with her third child and she was worried about how safe it would be for her children to live in the NT throughout their lives.

"I want my children to have a long, safe, healthy future in the NT but with the future heat projections I am worried they will not," Ms McNamara said.

"These extreme temperature increases are directly linked to fossil fuel developments. I want my representatives to listen to the experts when they say we cannot afford to risk our health and our climate with these dangerous fossil fuel projects."

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• Doctors press Labor over NT gas projects

Health professionals' letter to the Prime Minister - in support of NT paediatricians

Thank you for your support of our campaign - we are at almost 1500 signatories already. Please scroll down to sign.

This is an open letter to the Prime Minister, for health professionals and students supporting NT paediatricians in their stand against the devastating health impacts that will likely ensue from fracking in the Beetaloo Basin. This letter requests that the Prime Minister and his Government intervene to prevent gas fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, acknowledging that the emissions cannot be fully offset. We also request that the government withdrawn current financial support for gas processing at the proposed Middle Arm development.

Dear Prime Minister,

We write as health professionals from all across Australia who support the Northern Territory paediatricians in raising concerns about the health impacts of fracking and the expansion of the gas industry in the midst of the climate crisis. The proposal to frack shale gas in the Beetaloo Basin and construct a gas processing hub at the Middle Arm Precinct in the centre of Darwin Harbour poses serious threats to the health and wellbeing of our children and our communities, both in the Northern Territory and throughout Australia. These serious health risks arise due to the direct impacts of fracking and the exacerbation of climate change.

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• Malarndirri McCarthy - This morning I hosted the Australian Parents 4 Climate Action and paediatricians in Parliament to speak about their concerns around climate change & health.

It’s important to listen to concerns that many have, particularly around extreme heat, livability & the impacts on health.: https://twitter.com/Malarndirri19/st...36538413395968

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• [email protected] - speech today notes annual investment in clean energy has to rise three-fold to meet 2030 targets on the way to net zero by mid-century. https://twitter.com/p_hannam/status/1688687908981714944

Yesterday’s update had too much information for just one post. So……..