24 February 2023
CLIMATE POLITICS
Feds should drive EV road user charges to fill fuel excise pothole (Australian Financial Review): One of the tougher decisions Jim Chalmers made upon becoming treasurer was to not extend the 22¢-per-litre reduction in fuel excise. The six-month reduction, which came at a net cost of $3 billion, was a cost-of-living relief measure that the former government, with Labor’s support, included in its final budget, which was handed down just before the election campaign.
‘Making the climate crisis worse’: Greens blast Labor after Queensland coal seam gas expansion approved (The Guardian): The Greens have accused Labor of “making the climate crisis worse” and being more interested in opening new coal and gas mines than working together to improve climate policy after the government approved a new coal seam gas expansion in Queensland. Documents posted on the environment department website show that the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, on Friday approved a project by the oil and gas company Santos to open 116 new coal seam gas wells in Queensland’s Surat Basin.
Overreaching by Greens on emissions legislation has left Adam Bandt in a corner (ABC News): If Peter Dutton is caught in a classic rock-and-hard-place dilemma over the Voice to Parliament, the same could be said for Greens Leader Adam Bandt on the safeguard legislation to underpin the government's climate policy. The Greens are putting as a condition of supporting the bill — now before parliament — that the government commits to a ban on new coal and gas projects. They pitched for the ban when parliament was considering legislation for the 43 per cent emissions reduction target, but the government stared them down and they ended up backing that bill.
‘It’s not that hard’: PM on building renewables (Australian Financial Review): There are enormous opportunities to build renewables locally, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Speaking at the University of Wollongong, Albanese has said that Australia has the capability to build renewables and that Labor’s national reconstruction fund would assist with funding those projects.
CARBON MARKETS
Australia’s big emitters could cut CO2 by 90% by 2050 without offsets, report finds (Guardian): Some of Australia’s largest heavy industrial companies have backed a report that says they could cut direct greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains by more than 90% by 2050, and not have to rely heavily on carbon offsets. The report, by the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative (ETI), prepared over three years by Climateworks Centre and the CSIRO, found the industrial transition would cost the equivalent of $21bn a year over three decades if Australia were to play its part in trying to limit global heating to 1.5C.
GREEN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES
Culling feral buffalo for carbon credits — win-win or a waste? (ABC News): Can culling feral buffalo in Australia help tackle climate change? It is a question that has been posed by researchers at Charles Darwin University (CDU) who believe land managers could be incentivised to cull feral bovine if they could earn valuable carbon credits. "Feral buffalo numbers are increasing across northern Australia, meaning their [methane] emissions are too," CDU's Hugh Davies said.
Would a nature repair market really work? Evidence suggests it’s highly unlikely (The Conversation): Why should governments do all of the heavy lifting to arrest the steep decline of many ecosystems? Endangered species live on private land too – so why not give farmers and landholders incentives to look after them and restore habitat? Framed like this, it’s easy to see the appeal of nature repair markets. Harness private money and direct it towards rescuing nature.
BP joins forces with BHP on mining with biodiesel (Australian Financial Review): Energy major BP has joined forces with BHP to bring a renewable diesel blend to iron ore mining as it pushes ahead with bigger plans to produce and export green hydrogen and green ammonia from a giant renewable energy hub on Western Australia’s Pilbara coast. BP aims to be supplying the Pilbara and its miners with green electrons from the $US36 billion ($52 billion) Australian Renewable Energy Hub by 2027 and to start exporting from about 2030.
Offshore wind farm proposed for Hunter coast, Chris Bowen calls for community feedback (ABC News): The federal government has announced a plan to develop an offshore wind farm zone off the New South Wales Hunter region that would have the capacity for hundreds of turbines. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen was in Newcastle on Thursday to ask for community feedback. "The zone has the capacity to create up to eight gigawatts of power — enough to power six million homes," he said.
BMW to build cars from Rio Tinto’s low-carbon aluminium (Australian Financial Review): Rio Tinto has struck a deal to supply BMW with low-carbon aluminium from next year as the car maker looks to lower its emissions footprint beyond producing electric vehicles. Under the partnership, Rio is set to provide aluminium to BMW’s giant production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for use in car body components.
Shell backs Australian energy storage disruptor (Australian Financial Review): Oil giant Shell is the latest big company to back Newcastle start-up MGA Thermal’s plan to store energy in blocks made of graphite and aluminium. Shell’s seed funding division “Gamechanger” will donate $US400,000 ($583,000) towards the demonstration plant that MGA is building near Newcastle, which has already won attention from the likes of AGL Energy, Japanese giant Toshiba and the federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
‘Marriage made in heaven’: Awnings that shade car parks can power cars (WA Today): Parking lots across France will soon be covered with solar canopies under a new law passed earlier this month, prompting calls for Australia to follow suit. Under the law, all car parks with 80 spaces or more must build raised solar-panel canopies covering at least half of the surface of the parking lot, or its owners will pay penalties.
Asian oil giant targets solar, batteries and hydrogen after buying Australian portfolio (Renew Economy): Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas’ clean energy subsidiary Gentari has completed the acquisition of leading Australian renewable energy company Wirsol Energy, including its 422MW of operating capacity and 765MW renewable energy pipeline. Confirming a report from earlier this month, Gentari, through its local subsidiary Gentari Renewables Australia, has completed the acquisition of Wirsol Energy and all its assets, from parent company and German renewable energy group Wircon.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Australia’s ‘grubbiest’ firms say they can hit net zero and still grow (Australian Financial Review): A group of the nation’s biggest carbon emitters say they can slash their carbon emissions by 92 per cent by 2050 and challenged critics of the government’s heavy industry CO2 reduction plan to drop short-term political objectives and back modest use of offsets. In a major report after three years’ work by a large range of key players including the CSIRO, capital managers AustralianSuper, industry groups like AiG, and BHP, BlueScope, Orica, Wesfarmers Chemicals and Woodside Energy among others, the group found industry can evolve to survive in a near zero-carbon future.
Coal giant Glencore pushes for law change to prevent 'legal challenges' to carbon project (ABC News): Leaked briefing notes reveal major coal miner Glencore has been lobbying for legislation changes to prevent legal challenges to a controversial carbon capture and storage project in the Great Artesian Basin. The documents also reveal Glencore is seeking a law change that would force landholders to host infrastructure, including pipes carrying ammonia, on private property. Glencore, via its subsidiary, Carbon Transport and Storage Corporation (CTSCo), is planning to store waste CO2 in an aquifer in the Great Artesian Basin as part of a trial carbon capture and storage project in southern Queensland.
OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST
‘We can’t afford for safeguards mechanism to fail’ (Australian Financial Review): As the much-discussed Safeguard Mechanism hovers in the purgatory between negotiation and collapse, it’s clear that we stand on a precipice, not just for Australia’s emissions, but also for our national economic ambitions. In our daily work helping companies and investors lean into opportunities thrown up by a decarbonising economy, we see a growing appetite for industrial direction in a policy environment that is far from optimised.
“Sun tax” gets closer, but not much clearer, as networks outline solar export tariff plans (Renew Economy): Solar households can now get a look at what their PV generating future might look like under a sun tax, as some of Australia’s biggest distribution network companies take the final steps to introduce solar export tariffs in July, 2024. Following a series of trials, draft proposals and plenty of heated debate, three NSW network companies – Essential Energy, Ausgrid, and Endeavour Energy – that will be among Australia’s first to introduce solar export tariffs have submitted their 2024-29 revenue proposals to the Australian Energy Regulator.
Australia ‘falling off the pace’ in global hydrogen race (Australian Financial Review): Australia will need to put aside its aversion to industry policy and devote at least $15 billion in public funds over the coming decade to counter a sudden global hydrogen “subsidy arms race” triggered by the US that threatens to gobble up traditional north Asian export markets, says Deloitte. The warning comes in a report published on Thursday by the consulting firm and in remarks from former Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Guy Debelle, which argue that there needs to be greater political support for hydrogen to ensure it becomes a key component of the net zero transition, and a potential offset for the “rivers of gold” that come from LNG exports.