Way to Go: industry views

“A million dollars doesn’t buy you much these days. It buys you about a day in court if you’re a defamation lawyer, or it buys you about a third of a car park in Kooyong, or it buys you approval of a $60 billion mine [in the Galilee Basin]… This election coming up is the most critical election for the health of the world. We’re not mucking around here.”

Climate campaigner and comedian Dan Ilic who garnered significant financial support for billboards to grace Glasgow during the COP26 summit, and who is on a mission to stir up interest in ‘climate independents’ in federal electorates to accelerate the closure of fossil fuel plants

“Richie Merzian and I saw the UK COP Presidency and other countries saying we need to consign coal to history, launching initiatives that stop new coal power stations, stop financing them and actually bring out plans to phase coal out in 2030 (for developed countries) and 2040 (for developing countries).” Australia’s absence from the anti-coal day was noticeable. Australia’s role at COP26 as a promoter of fossil fuels over climate solutions has been on full display.

Ben Oquist of The Australia Institute, reporting live from COP26

“Based on current information, investment in large-scale renewables seems to have settled at an average of approximately 2.5GW per annum reaching FID and may be trending up… With a joint probable pipeline of 7.1GW in committed projects, the outlook for the renewable energy industry over the coming few years is positive [however] at some point, investment in renewables may stall if delivery of transmission and interconnector upgrades are not sped up.”

The Clean Energy Regulator

“Australia’s clean energy transition is tipped to accelerate to the point that most homes will have solar panels paired with batteries by 2030 and the nation could have the highest penetration of renewable energy per capita of anywhere in the world.”

The Age (newspaper) reporters Nick Toscano and Mike Foley

“While Australia is benefiting from its highest share of renewables in the energy market ever, the Audit shows that emissions reductions from Australia’s electricity generation is still worse than in countries like the US, UK and Japan, and emissions from our other energy combustion activities are rising. Reductions in electricity emissions achieved through renewables are also being cancelled out thanks to the commissioning of new Liquified Natural Gas plants, estimated to have increased Australia’s annual emissions by around 15 Mt CO2-e.”

The Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program latest National Energy Emissions Audit

“The latest emissions data release proves the federal government’s climate response is woefully inadequate. They say we’re ‘on track’ to cut emissions by one-third of one per cent (0.28%) per year over the next decade. That is a snail’s pace – not the rapid and deep reductions we need to be making this decade.”

The Climate Council’s Tim Baxter

CoalKeeper and the Energy Security Board

“The ESB’s capacity mechanism involves paying generators not for producing electricity, but for being able to prove they are available in certain periods of the year when there is a risk of an energy supply shortage. It’s like getting paid not for working every day, but for being able to prove you would be able to be at work on some of the busiest days of the year.”

Johanna Bowyer, IEEFA

AND

“Analysis that takes into account variability of wind and solar power suggests that the vast bulk of the gap left by exiting coal can be filled with batteries capable of supplying power for around six hours or less.”

Tristan Edis, Green Energy Markets