15 July 2022

CLIMATE POLITICS

Labor in diplomatic climate flurry, at home and overseas, before parliament sits (Renew Economy): With a little over a week until the new federal parliament convenes for the first time, the Albanese government is ramping up diplomatic efforts – both domestically and internationally – to win support for its climate action ambitions. While much of these efforts have been carefully orchestrated – such as this week’s inaugural Sydney Energy Forum which attracted high level representation from major Asia Pacific peers – the new government is also grappling with the inadvertent release of its first climate change legislation.

Labor asked to reassess decisions about coal and gas projects made by previous governments (ABC News): As many as 19 big coal and gas proposals in Australia could be forced to be assessed for potential damage to species and environments — through their impacts on climate change — if a new legal application is successful. The Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECCQ) has written to federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, formally requesting that she reconsider how 19 coal and gas project approvals are assessed under federal environment law, and to consider the broader effects of climate change and how emissions from these projects could damage environments.

Albanese aims for superpower status in global energy transition (Sydney Morning Herald): Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become a renewable energy superpower by transforming the country’s old coal-dominated electricity grid, helping its regional allies to shift to net zero emissions and tapping booming green investments. Australia has among the highest growth in renewable energy as well as some of the best critical minerals deposits and Albanese on Tuesday, in his first major speech on climate change as prime minister, will signal his intention to share our technology, resources and expertise with counties such as India and Indonesia.

Greens threaten Labor’s climate, IR agenda (The Australian): The Australian Greens have warned that they have the numbers to derail the federal government's legislative plans, including on climate change and industrial relations, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese encouraging the Greens to end the climate discussion and endorse a bill to enshrine a 2030 emissions target in law. The Prime Minister said that both the Greens and independents should support the Australian Labor Party's climate change bill when it is presented in parliament later this month, with the PM accusing the Greens of contributing to the past decade of policy inaction by opposing Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme in 2009.

CARBON MARKETS

New snapshot of corporate emissions reduction progress (Clean Energy Regulator): For the first time, a snapshot has been published of the progress being made by some of the biggest companies in Australia towards their climate ambitions. The Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency (CERT) report is a new way for eligible companies to present their climate-related commitments, progress and net emissions position all in one place. In this first year, the CERT report is operating as a pilot, with 23 companies participating from across the energy, manufacturing, mining, retail, financial, construction and research sectors. The intent of the pilot was to test the reporting framework and guidelines, and to evaluate how it could evolve over time. The companies participating in the pilot represent almost one quarter of Australia's emissions that were reported to the Clean Energy Regulator for 2020-21. A significant number of other companies engaged in the CERT design with a view to potentially participating in the first full year.

Mixed report card for carbon polluters (The Australian): The Clean Energy Regulator has independently verified progress on about 65% of climate commitments made by the 23 companies involved in its pilot emissions transparency program. The first iteration of the Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency report outlines the progress that 23 large companies, accounting for 23% of all Scope 1 emissions, have made in meeting their climate goals, with 49 commitments included in the study, with the data on the progress of 31 of those independently verified by the regulator. The CER found that AGL Energy has moved backwards on its goal to reach net zero emissions by 3.1% on its goal to reach net zero emissions by 2047 in the financial year.

Australia’s central climate policy pays people to grow trees that already existed. Taxpayers – and the environment – deserve better (The Conversation): The federal government has launched an independent review of Australia’s central climate policy, the Emissions Reduction Fund, after we and others raised serious concerns about its integrity. The review will examine, among other issues, whether several ways of earning credits under the scheme lead to genuine emissions reductions. One method singled out for scrutiny involves regrowing native forests to store carbon from the atmosphere. Our new analysis suggests the vast majority of carbon storage credited under this method either has not occurred, or would have occurred anyway. Here we explain why.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

CEFC tips $50m into Packer-backed fund to support carbon abatement “enablers” (Renew Economy): The federal government’s green bank has made a cornerstone investment in a fund established to support small and medium businesses in Australia working to “meaningfully” reduce carbon emissions in the wider economy. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation on Tuesday announced the $50 million investment in the Ellerston 2050 Fund – an offshoot of the James Packer-backed Ellerston Capital – which is being matched by another $50 million from Qantas Super. The CEFC says the open-ended wholesale fund will focus on investing in carbon abatement “enablers,” including listed and unlisted companies with low carbon products, technology and services supporting energy efficiency or the rapid uptake of low emissions technologies.

Massive Queensland wind farm strikes land use deal with traditional owners (Renew Economy): Plans to develop a 600MW wind farm in north Queensland have taken an important step forward after developer Windlab secured an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the region’s traditional owners and Native Title holders, the Gugu Badhun. Under the agreement, confirmed by Windlab this week, the Gugu Badhun will take a lead role in delivering conservation and improvement initiatives for the Upper Burdekin wind farm, incorporating traditional land management techniques. Windlab said the Gugu Badhun-Windlab Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) would support the delivery of environmental protection, employment, education and enterprise outcomes for the region’s Traditional Owners.

GREEN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

McGowan Government supports local renewable diesel industry (Media Statement – The Hon Bill Johnston MLA): Horizon Power has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with FutureEnergy Australia to investigate opportunities to establish a renewable diesel industry in regional Western Australia. The partnership between Horizon Power and FutureEnergy Australia is intended to canvas a wide range of opportunities, including direct investment into renewable diesel projects, offtake, power purchase agreements and new site locations. This will include exploring the potential for a renewable diesel production facility in the Collie region. The McGowan Government recently awarded FutureEnergy Australia $2 million, as part of the Clean Energy Future Fund, to support its Narrogin Renewable Diesel project, which will produce 18 million tonnes of renewable diesel per year.

WA takes first step towards creating huge battery supply chain industry (Renew Economy): Western Australia has taken its first concrete step towards establishing a globally competitive battery materials supply chain in the state, with the launch of a cathode precursor production pilot plant in Perth. Located at Curtin University in Bentley on the outskirts of Perth, the Australian-first pilot plant will help design and build cathode precursor manufacturing facilities on a commercial and industrial scale. The launch of the facility comes two years almost to the date after the publication of a report commissioned by state government’s Future Batteries Industry Cooperative Research Centre.

Qantas, Virgin ‘hostage’ to markets on sustainable fuel (Australian Financial Review): Boeing Australia president Brendan Nelson says the local aviation sector will be held “hostage to international markets” if the nation is unable to kickstart a domestic sustainable fuel industry quickly enough. Speaking in Sydney on Thursday, Dr Nelson said Australia already produced feed stock used to create biofuels in other parts of the world and was paying “seriously inflated” costs to import the fuels back in – an issue that will only become worse as airlines rely far more on alternative fuel products.

The ‘mad scientist’ who could turn Australia’s iron ore green (Australian Financial Review): First, he served up a solution to the European cement industry’s carbon problem, now Australian inventor Mark Sceats has told the Tech Zero podcast his patented kiln could also fix the iron ore industry’s most intractable climate challenge. Dr Sceats, 73, has spent the past year focused on developing a low-carbon, affordable method for removing the oxygen from iron ore in the hope that he can help Australia’s biggest export industry start selling “green iron” rather than iron ore.

OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST

Global action on mineral supplies needed to meet net zero goals (Australian Financial Review): Global action is needed to ensure there are sufficient supplies of minerals required to build renewable energy generation assets, the vice chairman of S&P Global and energy markets expert Daniel Yergin has warned, because without them the cost of zero emission projects will soar. Mr Yergin said that while the goal of reaching net zero by 2050 or earlier is clear, there remains significant uncertainty about how countries will achieve this, and less clarity still on the volume of minerals and materials that will be needed to build assets such as solar panels and wind turbines.

New wind and solar saved $82bn in fossil fuel costs in 2021, but supply pressures loom (Renew Economy): Global wind and solar technologies continued to achieve massive declines in cost last year, but observers warn the full impacts of the current supply chain and commodity crunch have yet to be fully felt across energy markets. In a new report, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that wind and solar technologies achieved double-digit cost reductions in 2021, but warned supply chain pressures and a surge in commodity prices could dent this progress in 2022. Last year, the global cost of onshore wind energy fell by 15 per cent, offshore wind projects fell by 13 per cent, and the cost of solar PV dropped by 13 per cent, the IRENA report says.