12 April 2024

CLIMATE POLITICS

Landmark court ruling finds Switzerland failed its citizens on climate change (The Sydney Morning Herald): Europe’s top human rights court has ruled that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change, in a decision that will set a precedent for future climate lawsuits. The European Court of Human Rights’s ruling, in favour of the more than 2000 Swiss women who brought the case, is expected to resonate in court decisions across Europe and beyond, and to embolden more communities to bring climate cases against governments.

D’Ambrosio gas claim debunked after outburst against Labor’s King (Australian Financial Review): A top energy group has debunked Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio’s claim her state is a net exporter of gas to Queensland during a social media outburst in which she accused fellow Laborite Madeleine King of behaving like “a Coalition minister”. Ms D’Ambrosio’s lashing of the federal resources minister, who was seemingly compared to LNP predecessors including Keith Pitt and Matt Canavan, stunned federal Labor, with one senior member observing that “on gas, it’s always someone else’s fault”.

Bowen takes capacity tender out west in search of 2GWh of energy storage (Renew Economy): The federal government is to take its Capacity Investment Scheme across the Nullarbor to Western Australia within just a couple of months, with an initial tender for 2,000MWh of energy storage projects to be opened mid-year. Federal energy minister Chris Bowen said on Friday that his department is preparing to launch the first CIS tender for WA’s wholeslae energy market (WEM) in June, with an indicative target of 500MW of four-hour equivalent (2 GWh) “clean dispatchable capacity.”

Albanese says government to bankroll green manufacturing, flags tighter foreign investment rules (Renew Economy): Major manufacturing and clean energy projects will be funded in the upcoming federal budget as Anthony Albanese flags a possible tightening of foreign investment rules. The prime minister unveiled the Future Made in Australia Act on Thursday, which would advance manufacturing and safeguard the nation’s control over resources and critical minerals.

CARBON MARKETS

Woodside slams Glass Lewis’ carbon assessment (Australian Financial Review): Woodside Energy has accused proxy adviser Glass Lewis of heeding the views of activist shareholder groups and ignoring the dozens of investors who back its climate strategy. Chairman Richard Goyder personally held 43 meetings with investors last year, while the investor relations team held 70 investor meetings focused specifically on climate change and Woodside’s response, the oil and gas producer said.

Australia forecast to become a carbon credit factory (The West Australian): Australia is at a "critical stage" in how it achieves net-zero carbon emissions as the federal government prepares to set a tougher 2035 target. A carbon market industry report released on Wednesday forecasts Australia will become one of the world's largest producers of carbon credits, with demand to jump to nine million in 2024 and peak at 31 million units in 2031.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

HESTA sides with Woodside on Goyder’s future (Australian Financial Review): Woodside Energy’s most vocal superannuation fund investor will vote to re-elect the oil and gas giant’s chairman, Richard Goyder, despite a push from environmental activists to turf him from the board. But HESTA chief executive Debby Blakey said there was “still a gap” between the company’s strategy and the Paris climate agreement to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees. The fund, which owns just under 1 per cent of Woodside, is voting against the company’s climate strategy which will be put to investors at a shareholder meeting this month.

Woodside treads impossibly fine line on climate demands (Australian Financial Review): Woodside Energy is trying to walk a tightrope between presenting a decarbonisation plan that is realistic for the oil and gas producer and preserves shareholder value, and one that may better align with its environmental critics but is not credible. The company’s climate transition action plan, known as CTAP, has become a punching bag for its environmental critics as the issue of its decarbonisation strategy threatens to topple its high-profile chairman Richard Goyder.

GREEN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

Green scheme rules hang in balance as 6GW deadline nears (Australian Financial Review): Just weeks out from a planned tender process targeting six gigawatts of renewable generation capacity, project developers are still pressing for amendments to the rules to better protect their investments. The architects of wind and solar farms and battery projects say the final details yet to be nailed down as part of the Albanese government’s supercharged Capacity Investment Scheme will be crucial in determining whether the flagship program will achieve its aim of spurring $67 billion of new projects, including at least $10 billion by 2030.

Can one of our dirtiest coal plants reap a green bonanza? (Australian Financial Review): For months, a team of engineers scoured the Redbank Power Station, getting it ready to be turned back on. The plant, halfway between Maitland and Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, had been laying moribund since the last coal had been shovelled into the incinerator a decade ago. But then nothing happened. Almost all the technicians had to go – there was nothing for them to do.

Solar farm at Yenda switched on to power Casella Family Brands, makers of Yellowtail, Peter Lehmann wines (ABC News): One of Australia's largest wineries, Casella Family Brands (CFB) at Yenda in southern New South Wales, uses more electricity than many small towns, but it is now drawing some of that power from the sun. The company has built a $10 million, 5.7 megawatt solar farm that can offset 7,800 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia's largest hydrogen electrolyser manufacturing facility opens in central Queensland (ABC News): Australia's largest hydrogen electrolyser manufacturing facility has opened in Queensland. The Gladstone Electrolyser Facility will be the first manufacturing facility in Australia to build electrolysers at a commercial scale and cements the industrial city as Australia's hydrogen capital.

BP’s Kwinana biorefinery gets ministerial tick (Business News): BP’s $1 billion Kwinana biorefinery has received ministerial approval at the recommendation of the Environmental Protection Authority, subject to a target of net-zero emissions by 2050. The approval from Environment Minister Reece Whitby comes following EPA endorsement early in January, which recommended the net-zero 2050 target and supported the project’s advancement.

Land-use deal for Pilbara green energy plant (Business News): An Indigenous-backed clean energy project targeting offtake deals with the Pilbara’s major resources firms has gained a crucial land-use deal to progress the $1 billion first stage. Yindjibarndi traditional owners on Monday registered an Indigenous land-use agreement with ACEN Corporation for the 750-megawatt Yindjibarndi Energy project south-east of Karratha.

OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST

Santos pursues environmentalists that bankrolled Barossa gas protest (Australian Financial Review): Santos has asked a court to force four environmental groups to hand over communications with the Environmental Defenders Office as it seeks to uncover who bankrolled a failed campaign to stop its massive Barossa gas project. The groups involved are Jubilee Australia Research Centre, The Sunrise Project Australia, Environment Centre NT and Market Forces, a prominent advocacy group that campaigns for financial institutions to push for lower emissions.

CSIRO survey finds most Australians want moderately paced energy transition and are unwilling to pay more (ABC News): A majority of Australians want the transition towards renewable energy to happen at a "moderate" pace and most are unwilling to accept higher bills to pay for it, according to a major survey by the country's top scientific organisation. But most Australians remain supportive of the broader shift away from fossil fuels and four out of five would "at least" tolerate living within 10 kilometres of renewable energy infrastructure.

Australians want more renewables faster: survey (The West Australian): Almost nine in 10 Australians want a faster or moderate transition to clean energy, the national science agency says. The CSIRO on Wednesday released a survey on attitudes nationwide towards the renewable energy transition.

Jobs bonanza for regions under clean energy blueprint (The West Australian): Some 60,000 jobs in solar panel manufacturing and $82 billion in turbine tower production by 2050 are in the wind if Australia becomes a clean energy superpower. Manufacturing will also get a shot in the arm from port-side construction plants, high-voltage cable needs and electric truck production under a blueprint launched by federal Jobs and Skills Minister Brendan O'Connor.

Petrol car ban, greener taxis could halve emissions (The West Australian): Petrol and diesel vehicles should be banned from sale by 2035 and households encouraged to get rid of one of their family cars, according to a new report which found Australia had the potential to halve its transport emissions by 2030. The Climate Council findings, released on Tuesday, also recommended the government make greater efforts to electrify taxi, ride-share and government fleet vehicles, to move more freight by rail, and to improve public transport, pedestrian and cycling facilities.

Developers frustrated by power delays (Business News): Industrial developers are waiting for up to two years to secure Western Power connections to their projects, prompting calls for the government to act. Connection times to the state-owned utility have blown out since 2020, when COVID pressures exacerbated an already heated construction market.