10 March 2023
CLIMATE POLITICS
Labor meets Greens demand for ban on reconstruction fund investment in coal, gas and native logging (The Guardian): The Albanese government has agreed to the Greens’ demands to ban the national reconstruction fund from direct investment in coal, gas and native logging projects. The deal secured the passage of the NRF bill through the lower house on Thursday and gives Labor a likely pathway to pass it in the Senate with the support of the Greens and crossbench in late March. The breakthrough on the NRF could also help pave the way for a deal on the safeguards bill, with Greens leader Adam Bandt suggesting parliament had accepted fossil fuels must be treated differently, a principle which could also be applied through a limit on their use of carbon credits.
David Pocock under pressure to block Labor’s safeguard mechanism bill after fossil fuel poll (The Guardian): A majority of Canberrans support a ban on new coal and gas projects in federal law, adding pressure to the independent senator David Pocock to withhold support from Labor’s safeguard mechanism bill. The uComms poll of 1,112 residents of the Australian Capital Territory, commissioned by the Australia Institute, found 63% oppose new coal and gas, and 82% oppose the unlimited use of carbon credits to offset pollution.
BHP urges Albanese to catch up to Biden’s IRA (AFR): BHP says Australia should be playing a larger role in low-emissions technologies, urging the Albanese government to put in place measures to attract financing and expand local refining and manufacturing in the sector. In its submission to the federal budget, the country's largest mining company warns other countries are "quickly moving to attract the capital needed to take advantage" of a surge in demand for critical minerals needed for a low-emissions environment, citing the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act and similar measures in Canada.
NSW government called out on net zero goal as own data projects coal and gas emissions until 2050 (The Guardian): Labor, the Greens and independent politicians have called on the New South Wales government to explain how emissions projections square with its 2050 net zero goal, after its own data showed pollution from coal and gas extending out to mid-century. The figures, which are contained within the government’s emissions dashboard, also show the land sector growing as a sink for carbon emissions even after the government loosened land clearing laws allowing farmers to remove more vegetation.
Coalition of independent NSW candidates vow to slow or halt coal and gas projects (The Guardian): A coalition of independents hoping to hold the balance of power in the next New South Wales parliament will demand action to slow or halt coal and gas projects from the major parties in the case of a hung parliament. Amid tightening in polling in the lead-up to the 25 March state election, the eight independents will seek to progress major reforms aimed at resources projects across the state, including the Narrabri gas project.
CARBON MARKETS
Hydrogen industry told to focus on carbon, not colour (AFR): The nascent hydrogen industry should stop classifying its products by colour and instead focus on actual carbon content, according to the Japanese power utility that plans to make clean hydrogen from Australia’s dirtiest coal. Jurisdictions like the European Union are starting to set formal definitions for “green hydrogen” made from renewables, at the encouragement of entrepreneurs like Andrew Forrest, and hydrogen made from fossil fuels has by extension been labelled “blue”, “grey” or “brown”, depending on the level of carbon abatement incorporated into each project.
A tonne of fossil carbon isn’t the same as a tonne of new trees: why offsets can’t save us (The Conversation): This week, the Albanese government is attempting to reform the safeguard mechanism to try to make it actually cut emissions from our highest polluting industrial facilities. Experts and commentators see Labor’s plan as a cautious, incremental change that doesn’t yet rise to the urgency of the intensifying climate crisis. But it could generate momentum after a wasted decade of climate denial and delay under the previous government. Done right, it could set our biggest industrial polluters on a pathway to cut their emissions and be a springboard for more ambitious changes.
GREEN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES
Queensland to spend $5bn on 1,100km CopperString power line to unlock renewables potential (The Guardian): The Queensland government has said it will take control of a $5bn proposal to build a 1,100km power line connecting Mount Isa to the national grid, which it says will “unlock” development of new-economy mineral deposits in the state’s north west. The project, known as CopperString 2.0, has long been touted as necessary to provide future energy certainty to Queensland’s north-west minerals province, where miners are considering the potential to extract large amounts of copper, cobalt, vanadium, lead, zinc and phosphate.
Ipswich's old coal power station to be transformed into renewable energy plant (ABC News): A former coal power station outside Ipswich will be turned into a clean energy plant, the ABC can reveal. The Swanbank Power Station's transformation is part of the Queensland government's 70 per cent renewables target for 2032. Benchmark power prices in Queensland are expected to jump by more than 20 per cent within months, after a similar hike last year.
Japanese consortium sets out plan to commercialise Latrobe Valley coal-to-hydrogen project (ABC News): A coal-to-hydrogen project in Victoria's Latrobe Valley has received a multi-billion-dollar boost, prompting concerns from an environment group about its carbon emissions. The Japanese government's clean energy fund has selected a joint venture between conglomerates J-Power and the Sumitomo Corporation to head up the project. It has committed $2.35 billion to progress the project further. It follows a world-first pilot program where hydrogen produced using Latrobe Valley coal was shipped to Japan via the Port of Hastings last year in a specially-constructed boat.
Shift to green steel challenges future of Australian iron ore (AFR): The iron-rich landscape of the Pilbara had just given the Australian mining industry another bumper set of profits and dividends when Rio Tinto provided a sobering outlook for the economy’s most lucrative export industry. “An inevitable structural shift toward green steel is under way,” Rio said in the fine print of February’s full-year accounts.
French oil giant targets 30GW of wind and solar for green hydrogen projects in Australia (Renew Economy): Total Eren, a renewable energy developer partly owned by French oil giant Total, says it is looking at a massive number of “gigawatt” scale renewable projects in Australia as part of a major global push into renewable hydrogen. The company already owns and operates the 256MW (dc) Kiamal solar farm in Victoria (pictured above), and is about to begin construction of a 192MW (dc) second stage, which will feature DC-couple inverters as well as a neighbouring big battery of up to 300MWh of storage.
Evo Power wins contract for “solar soaking” utility batteries across network (Renew Economy): Ergon Energy, a subsidiary of Energy Queensland, has awarded contracts to Melbourne-based energy storage specialists Evo Power for the installation of battery storage systems across six different sites in 2023. Each site – the locations of which were undisclosed – will get one of Evo’s AMP Series utility scale battery energy storage systems (BESS), and construction of the first 4.5MW/10 MWh facility will commence in the third quarter of 2023. According to Evo Power all six batteries will provide direct network support to the grid.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
These companies are certified carbon neutral. But that may not mean what you think it does (ABC News): A quick look on the websites of some of Australia's largest companies — from fossil fuel and electricity providers, to telecommunications and banks — shows many are "certified carbon neutral". National Australia Bank (NAB) claims to be the country's "first carbon-neutral bank", Cooper Energy claims to be "Australia's first carbon-neutral domestic gas supplier", and Telstra is certified for its "business operations, and its retail electricity and gas products". Climate Active says accredited businesses meet 'rigorous requirements'. Their carbon-neutral credentials come from Climate Active — a government-backed program that started life as the National Carbon Offset Standard in 2010, and as "Greenhouse Friendly" before that.
Woodside CEO says clean energy spend is ‘appropriate’ (AFR): Woodside Energy chief executive Meg O’Neill has defended the level of investment the oil and gas producer has earmarked for clean energy and left the door open for raising the spend beyond the $US5 billion ($7.6 billion) targeted by 2030 if returns are high enough. Asked at a US conference on the proportion of capital expenditure that represented, Ms O’Neill said total investment envisaged on “new energy” – largely hydrogen and ammonia – was less than half of the $US12 billion cost of the Scarborough LNG project that Woodside gave the go-ahead in 2021.
OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST
Green subsidy war looms as EU moves to match US (AFR): The European Union has cleared the way for a subsidy race with the US over crucial technologies, allowing member states to “match” multi-billion dollar incentives as they fight to keep projects in Europe. The overhaul published by the European Commission on Thursday (Friday AEDT) will for the first time justify large-scale public funding for green projects if similar incentives are offered outside Europe, a radical departure in how state subsidies have been policed within the bloc.
Australia invests $4.29bn in renewable energy in December quarter, 10 times the previous three months (The Guardian): Investment in large-scale renewable energy and storage accelerated in the final three months of 2022, creating the largest quarterly investments for more than four years, but the pace remains inadequate, the Clean Energy Council says. Developers made financial commitments to renewables and storage totalling $4.29bn in the December quarter, a 10-fold increase on the previous three months.