Day 102: 'Crying out for certainty'
An introductory weekday newsletter from Schwartz Media. Counting the days since Australia had an energy policy.
Good morning and welcome to day 102.
Today in summary: more lobbying for a revival of the NEG, this time from state governments; Labor’s climate policy will reintroduce carbon trading for Australian businesses; and the UN says Australia won’t meet its Paris targets.
— Sophie
Today’s policy spin level: 💨💨💨
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Debate over the National Energy Guarantee continues, with state governments of Queensland, New South Wales and likely Victoria backing a revival of the policy after Julie Bishop supported it on Monday. The AFR reports Queensland Energy Minister Anthony Lynham saying:
"Business and investors are crying out for the certainty and the Coalition continues to ignore them. Energy ministers meet again in Adelaide in late December and Queensland will continue to press for the integrated climate and energy direction that the ALP and the NEG offer Australia."
Still, Scott Morrison is resolute in his opposition to a revival: in question time yesterday, he said Labor was attempting to “use the national energy guarantee as some sort of trojan horse to legislate a 45% emissions reduction target”.
Labor’s climate policy, which it’s still working on, will use an existing framework that puts emission caps on Australia’s 140 largest carbon dioxide emitters, The Australian reports.
“Labor climate change spokesman Mark Butler has been working behind the scenes with big manufacturers to bed down the proposed policy, which would reintroduce carbon trading for Australian businesses for the first time since the repeal of the Gillard government’s carbon tax by Tony Abbott in late 2013.
“As part of the consultation, Mr Butler has promised energy-intensive, trade-exposed businesses, known as EITEs, that they would not face new costs that would cripple their ability to compete internationally.”
Australia is not on track to meet its 2030 Paris emissions target, according to the UN. Its 2018 Emissions Gap Report says global greenhouse gas emissions have reached new records and are showing no signs of peaking, and about half of G20 nations - including Australia - won’t reach their goals. Australia's aim is to reduce emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels.
ABC | The Guardian | The Australian
The Commentariat
The Coalition needs a climate change policy if it wants to improve its odds of winning the next election, writes Elmer Funke Kupper, former CEO of the ASX. Since Julia Banks moved to the crossbench, the odds for the government being re-elected went to $4.25 from $3.70, while Labor is at $1.20, he writes.
“[The NEG] was the first sensible policy that married together energy security and the environment. It recognised that renewables can now compete with traditional fossil fuels. It was almost universally supported. It even looked like it might get through Parliament. It's therefore hard to understand why the Coalition dropped the NEG. It's one thing to be a climate change sceptic. It's another to have no long-term policy whatsoever, and then torpedo the one policy that made sense.”
Three more things
AEMO chief Audrey Zibelman has likened the organisation’s Integrated Systems Plan as “a bit like modern art, because everyone saw in it what they wanted to see”. Zibelman also said “first world country thinking” was needed to help save energy. She discussed the agency’s challenges in managing the energy transition. For example, in western Victoria, where a portion of the grid had only 450 megawatts available to the system but there were 1,000 megawatts being built and another 4000 additional megawatts slated. “Not surprisingly that creates a problem.”
Western Australia’s decision to allow fracking in the state comes with carve outs that will not benefit Andrew Forrest’s Kimberley gas exploration business Squadron Energy, according to The West Australian. Squadron Energy together with its 20% partner Goshawk Energy, have eight permits in the region, but five are “special prospecting authorities” unlikely to be sufficient to allow fracking.
Five US parliamentarians - three Democrats and two Republicans, have proposed a carbon tax bill that would enforce a US$15-per-tonne carbon "fee" on fossil fuel producers, processors and importers. The tax would then rise by US$10 every year, with all revenues returned to the public. The bill is highly unlikely to be legislated but it is the third federal carbon tax proposal to be released or modified in the US this year.
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