Australia will take a long-term emissions reduction strategy to a United Nations global climate change summit later this year, but the plan has immediately come in for criticism from environmentalists and the opposition Labor Party.
As soon as it was announced environmental groups and Labor said the plan merely kicked the can down the road on climate action and described the plan as a roadmap to nowhere.
AAP Newsagency reports flagging his approach to the Glasgow COP26 summit, the Energy Minister in Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government, Angus Taylor, told a business forum in Sydney today the strategy would be based on using technology to cut emissions.
“A target without a plan is meaningless, it is the worst part of the emissions reduction debate,” he told the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).
“The world must go through a rapid technology development and adoption phase to ensure that we can reduce emissions on a global scale, and Australia is well placed to take advantage of this.”
The government has a target of a 26 to 28 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels by 2030, but Labor says a longer-term target of zero net emissions by 2050 is also needed.
AAP reports that leading up to this year’s climate summit,launched recent;y by Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, work will be done on how best to boost investment in low-emissions energy generation, and make geological and biological sequestration cheaper.
Mr Taylor said one of his parameters would be to deliver the shift over coming decades “without massive government subsidies”.
The cornerstone of the strategy would be a “technology investment roadmap” which will give the public and private sector guidance on the government’s priorities for energy and emissions-reduction technologies.
To date, federal funds totalling more than $10.4 billion have been invested in more than 670 clean technology projects with a value of $35 billion, mostly focused on wind and solar.
“We must move our investments to the next challenges, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, lithium, and advanced livestock feed supplements, to name a few,” Mr Taylor said.
The government would target its support to ensure each technology reached economic parity or better, that is, the shift to lower emissions comes at a low or zero cost.
In addition, the government would seek a “four- or five-times multiplier” effect, for every dollar from taxpayers, the private sector would invest four or five dollars over the course of a project.
Labor climate and energy spokesman Mark Butler said the plan lacked credibility, especially given the latest data showed only a 0.3 per cent reduction in emissions in the year to date.
He said Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) had estimated the cost of a carbon-capturing coal-fired power station at around US$352 per megawatt-hour, compared with a US$70/Mwh figure for Snowy Hydro.
“Angus Taylor’s carbon capture and storage pipe dream will mean higher power prices,” Mr Butler said.
“This technology roadmap is Mr Taylor’s way of delaying serious action on climate change, leaving credible emissions reductions to his eventual replacement,” said Climate Councillor and former head of BP Australasia, Greg Bourne.
“Carbon Capture and Storage is incredibly expensive. It is not a climate solution, but an attempt to prolong the role of fossil fuels in the energy system. Hydrogen produced using renewables is a good idea, but the Government has hinted it will use fossil fuels to make hydrogen,” Mr Bourne said.
“Australians have just lived through a horrendous summer, made much more severe by climate change.
“There is only one way to turn this around and that is to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Where is the plan to do that?” he said.
“While the government sidelines investment in clean and affordable renewable energy, this ‘roadmap’ will lead to more fires, higher power bills, stranded assets and ultimately job losses,” Mr Bourne said.
“Australia has the solutions to drive down greenhouse gas emissions.
“We must stop propping up the fossil fuel industry and we must instead accelerate the transition to renewable energy and storage,” he said.
Dr Nikola Casule, head of research at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said the key to cutting emissions lay in phasing out coal, oil and gas.
“Images of koalas burned alive are still so fresh in our minds, yet the federal government just keeps kicking the climate can down the road with another tactic to ignore coal as Australia’s top source of emissions,” Dr Casule said.
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