11 March 2022

CLIMATE POLITICS

Pitt uses Russian invasion to justify another handout for gas drilling in Beetaloo Basin (Renew Economy): Federal resources minister Keith Pitt has gifted another $7.5 million to the gas industry to drill for gas in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin, with the Morrison government doubling down on its support for an expanded fossil fuel industry. Pitt announced on Monday that he had awarded the $7.5 million grant to Sweetpea Petroleum, a subsidiary of Tamboran Resources, to undertake exploration drilling in the Beetaloo Basin. Pitt used the growing crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent fallout for energy markets across Europe to justify the grant and the government’s ongoing support for an expansion of Australia’s gas industry.

Angus Taylor attacks Beetaloo Basin activists and says Australia right to expand fossil fuels (The Guardian): The Australian energy minister, Angus Taylor, has criticised “activists” for opposing new oil and gas development in the Beetaloo Basin, declaring European nations are now regretting not pursuing a “gas-fired recovery”. After the United States banned Russian oil imports in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the United Kingdom said it would phase them out by year’s end, Taylor told Sky News Australia that Australia had been correct to continue expanding fossil fuel development. Noting there had been an underinvestment in new supply of oil and gas around the world, Taylor said Australia had “kept our foot on the accelerator”.

Draft Bill to help WA’s resources industry reduce emissions (Media Statement: The Hon Bill Johnston MLA): Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Johnston has approved the drafting of a Bill that will provide Western Australia's resources sector with further investment and regulatory certainty as it transitions to a low-carbon future. The Greenhouse Gas Storage and Transport Bill aims to provide WA's mining, LNG and natural gas industries with access to opportunities to decarbonise, such as mineral carbonation and carbon capture, utilisation and storage. The McGowan Government is committed to mitigating climate change and working with all sectors of the WA economy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Taylor challenges big-promise net zero firms to show progress (Australian Financial Review): Energy Minister Angus Taylor is challenging some of Australia’s biggest companies to publicly reinforce their self-declared promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions by joining a government-run register of progress. The federal government opened its Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency (CERT) scheme at the end of November and said it had received more declarations than it expected to this point.

CARBON MARKETS

Australian carbon market routed after Taylor’s shock intervention (Renew Economy): The price of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) has fallen dramatically after the federal Coalition government indicated it could step back as the largest buyer of emissions reductions in Australia’s fledgling carbon market. The announcement itself was not particularly well handled, with what amounts to a major upheaval of the supply-demand balance in Australia’s emerging carbon market being released shortly after midnight on Friday. The announcement – that the federal government will facilitate carbon abatement projects to not deliver on contracts for emissions reductions, rather than encouraging them to fulfil the contracts – sent ripples through the market.

Regulator steps in to ensure carbon traders share windfalls, but price plunges again (Renew Economy): Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has taken the extraordinary move of stepping into the market to set “expectations” that any windfall profits to carbon traders from newly announced changes to the government’s main climate mechanism are shared with farmers and landholders. The changes to the Emissions Reduction Fund will see the regulator facilitate carbon traders to sell their carbon credits, known as Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), on the potentially more lucrative open market rather than be bound by lower priced contracts to sell the credits to the federal government.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Gas project fits in ESG investing, says Global Infrastructure Partners (Australian Financial Review): Global Infrastructure Partners has rejected criticism that its investment in Australia’s biggest fossil fuel development in almost a decade is in contravention of its environmental pledges. Woodside’s Scarborough project – holding about 11 trillion cubic feet of gas – will lock in another 30 years of LNG exports starting in 2026, when shipments are due to start from the expanded Pluto site near Karratha.

Emissions report to match data to promises (The West Australian): Twenty-five Australian companies, including some of the biggest polluters, have joined an emissions reduction reporting scheme that should show whether their efforts match public commitments. The Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency (CERT) report pilot now includes more than 25 per cent of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions reported to the Clean Energy Regulator. Companies opting in are demonstrating leadership for being open and transparent about their efforts to tackle emissions, chair of the regulator David Parker said on Thursday.

GREEN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

AGL Energy chief executive uncertain if takeover bid is really over (The Guardian): AGL Energy says it is not sure whether an unsolicited takeover bid by billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canadian fund manager Brookfield is really over – or if the consortium has just hit the “pause button”. AGL dismissed an increased offer of $8.25 a share made late on Friday. It valued the company at about $8.5bn including debt. “We think that [the revised bid] is still well short of what is traditionally required in these kinds of circumstances,” Graeme Hunt, AGL’s chief executive, said while declining to say what sum would have enticed the board to engage with the suitors. In the wake of the rejection, AGL’s shares ended Monday down 13 cents, or 1.75%, at $7.30. The overall market declined about 1%.

AGL suitors stir doubts about ‘terrible’ demerger (Australian Financial Review): Brookfield and Mike Cannon-Brookes are still pursuing ambitions to take over AGL Energy, despite walking away from their rebuffed $5.5 billion takeover proposal, contacting shareholders on Monday to garner support and stoke doubts about the board’s alternative demerger plan. The move is being seen as a tactic to undermine AGL’s demerger proposal, potentially setting it up to fail, at which time the bidding partners could pounce, some say.

Brookfield’s Carney throws down challenge to AGL board (Australian Financial Review): Brookfield vice-chairman Mark Carney has thrown down a challenge to AGL Energy’s board to prove that its demerger is a better option than the Canadian giant’s takeover offer with Mike Cannon-Brookes, warning that those who move slowly on the energy transition will destroy value. Mr Carney said the bidding partners had made a “very strong” cash proposal for AGL, and they believed this was a better offer for AGL shareholders, its customers and all Australians.

Daintree rainforest residents a step closer to getting power from solar-to-hydrogen microgrid (ABC News): The federal government will sign off on a multi-million-dollar deal to bring power to townships living among the World Heritage-listed Daintree rainforest in Far North Queensland. The bulk of residents and businesses in the Daintree, north of Cairns, have long relied on diesel generators for their power needs — a fact that often stuns visitors to the world's oldest rainforest. On Monday afternoon, the government will sign a $19.3 million deal at a community meeting with the Brisbane-based Volt Advisory Group, which will construct a microgrid in the community later this year. Power generated by new and existing solar panels will be fed into the microgrid and turned into hydrogen, which would power about 700 homes and be used for seasonal storage and large-scale generators.

Danish join race for space off WA coast (WA Today): A Danish firm wants to install 200 wind turbines off the coast of Western Australia between Mandurah and Bunbury. The plan will compete with four other proposals to power the state with offshore clean energy.

Victorian offshore wind policy to hasten demise of coal (Australian Financial Review): Victoria’s ambitious target to have offshore wind provide much of the state’s energy generation will accelerate the closure of coal power in Australia, but it will not be reflected in the country’s official energy transition plans, officials said. The state last week set a target to generate the equivalent of about 20 per cent of its energy needs from offshore wind within a decade, outlining its goal of easing off ageing and carbon-intensive coal power.

Australia and Germany offer $125m to hydrogen start-ups (Australian Financial Review): Australia and Germany are offering funding totalling about $125 million to hydrogen start-ups to expand, the latest in a flurry of investment in the nascent technology widely tipped to lead the global energy transition. Global interest in hydrogen has grown substantially as countries make plans to move away from fossil fuels after pledging to reach net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier.

OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST

Energy network needs to build climate resilience (Australian Financial Review): Australia’s electricity networks, including the transmission towers, substations, poles and wires, are under sustained threat from climate change, and urgent investment is needed to offset the impact, a report from the sector’s industry body has concluded. Australia has been rocked by wild weather in recent years, including devastating bushfires and widespread flooding, which scientists attribute to climate change. While many nations including Australia have pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2050, climate change is threatening to make these weather events more frequent and more damaging.

What's the link between the floods on Australia's east coast and climate change? Scientists explain (SBS News): The deluge dumped on southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales this week has been catastrophic. Floodwaters peaked at around 14.4 metres high in Lismore - two metres higher than the city’s previous record. So how does this compare to Australia’s previous floods, such as in 2011? And can we expect more frequent floods at this scale under climate change? The answers to questions like these aren’t straightforward. Climate change doesn’t tell the whole story, as extreme rainfall can occur for a variety of reasons. What’s more, it’s too soon to officially state whether this event is directly linked to climate change, as this would require a formal event attribution study. This can take months or years to produce.

International Women’s Day highlights climate justice as a feminist issue (The Age): Women are on the front lines of the global climate crisis, making up 80 per cent of the 21.5 million people displaced every year by climate-related events. That’s according to the United Nations, which predicts at least 1.2 billion people could be displaced by climate events every year by 2050.

‘Unscientific’: Morrison government wanted IPCC to say Great Barrier Reef ‘not yet in crisis’ (The Guardian): The Australian government pushed to soften the wording of a major report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading climate science authority, to say the Great Barrier Reef is not yet in crisis. It has prompted accusations that the Morrison government had been unscientific, and was trying to play down the damage already being caused by global heating to avoid making deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The latest major assessment by the IPCC, released this week, included a section headed: “The Great Barrier Reef is in crisis”. It said the world’s largest coral reef was already heavily affected by climate change, particularly ocean heating, which was leading to more frequent and severe coral bleaching. The 2,300km reef system has endured mass bleaching events in three of the past six years.?