13 May 2022

CLIMATE POLITICS

Georgia Steele: The climate independent with Craig Kelly in her sights (Renew Economy): The looming federal election will see a wave of ‘teal’ independent candidates looking to displace Liberal party incumbents, who claim to be “moderate” and support stronger climate action, but who have failed to see it reflected in their party’s policies. But one such independent candidate has a different sort of target in her sights – one of Australia’s most ardent climate change deniers. Independent candidate for Hughes, Georgia Steele, is hoping to unseat rogue parliamentarian Craig Kelly – a proponent of vaccine misinformation and climate change denial – arguing that embracing stronger climate policies could be vital to winning a seat in federal parliament.

Federal election 2022: Scott Morrison to announce $50 million green energy pitch (The West Australian): Prime Minister Scott Morrison will on Wednesday pledge to inject $50 million into research of green industries and create 1600 jobs if re-elected. The pledge would help create a new partnership with the University of New South Wales and University of Newcastle, alongside 27 industry partners, to accelerate technology development in the sector while creating jobs. Technology solutions in solar, hydrogen, storage and green metals will be the focal point of the new partnership.

A clean future or merely greenwashing? Critics claim Coalition's hydrogen plans are a 'fig leaf' for fossil fuels (ABC News): Plans by the federal government to develop a "clean" hydrogen industry in Australia have been branded greenwashing by critics who say taxpayer money is being used to subsidise fossil fuel activities. The government has announced plans for a series of hydrogen hubs around the country as part of efforts to kickstart production of the fuel and decarbonise the economy. About $500 million has been earmarked for hydrogen hubs for industrial centres in places including Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Tasmania.

Major parties have Australia on track to blow past Paris targets (Renew Economy): Neither of Australia’s major political parties have set climate policies consistent with the Paris Agreement, new analysis shows, leaving the Greens and the collective policies of the ‘teal’ independents to lead the way ahead of the federal election. The analysis produced by Climate Analytics compares the climate targets and policies of the major political groups ahead of the looming federal election. The think tank finds that the Morrison government’s current climate policies – and Australia’s official targets – are consistent with more than 3°C of global warming and are “bordering on 4°C.”

Canberra has failed us on energy: D’Ambrosio (Australian Financial Review): Victoria’s energy and climate minister Lily D’Ambrosio said federal Labor’s power grid upgrade plan will help ensure the leadership from Canberra missing under the Coalition but needed to ensure a smooth energy transition. Canberra’s failure to take a lead on the energy transition and its politicisation of the issue are to blame for the energy price shocks that are emerging, she declared, saying Victoria had to take action itself to protect consumers in the state.

Greens spruik billion-dollar plan to help resources sector turn green (The West Australian): The Greens WA are spruiking the benefits of an industrial hub in the Goldfields to help the resources sector reduce its carbon footprint and the nation to manufacture more things locally. WA Senator Dorinda Cox told the Kalgoorlie Miner a $15 billion “manufacturing bank” would promote and support products being made in Australia, with the Goldfields an ideal host. The proposal, announced by the Greens as part of their Powering Past Coal and Gas strategy, would target small businesses, workers’ co-operatives, and green not-for-profit and social enterprises that are engaged in innovative production, research and development.

Albanese pledges $100 million for “Australian made battery plan” (Renew Economy): Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese has promised to provide $100 million in funding for a battery manufacturing precinct in regional Queensland if Labor were to form government. Announcing the ‘Australian Made Battery plan’ from the Queensland industrial hub of Gladstone, Albanese said local battery manufacturing would help new Australian industries to ‘value-add’ resources of critical and rare earth minerals. It could also be a gateway to the revitalisation of Australian car manufacturing, Albanese said. “The resources sector has been the backbone of the Australian economy for decades. Developing Australia’s battery manufacturing capability is a step towards the potential for domestic electric vehicle manufacture,” Albanese said.

CARBON MARKETS

Tighter rules for polluters could stifle competition, Adbri warns (Australian Financial Review): One of Australia’s biggest concrete producers, Adbri, says Labor’s plans to tighten baselines on the federal government’s safeguard mechanism could stifle competition and threaten its ability to compete with cheaper imports. The South Australian-headquartered company – one of 14 firms forced to purchase carbon credits last financial year to comply with the scheme – had to surrender 10,383 Australian Carbon Credit Units at an estimated cost of $373,788 in 2020-21.

Land grab for carbon farming (The Australian): The market is growing quickly despite the government’s shock intervention that saw the price of carbon credit units plummet.

Visa, global banks complete test of the carbon offset system (American Banker): Visa and National Australia Bank are among the collaborators on a carbon credit initiative that's designed to expand payment technology for transactions that reduce carbon emissions. As part of a pilot, Visa purchased carbon credits from Sustainable Carbon, a environmentally focused project developer, using Carbonplace, a bank-supported carbon credit settlement platform. National Australia Bank, BNP Paribas, CIBC, NatWestGroup, UBS, Standard Chartered and Itau Unibanco are the founding members of Carbonplace, which plans to launch its platform, which it refers to as the "SWIFT of the carbon offset market," by the end of 2022.?The banks can share existing infrastructure, including tools for know-your-customer compliance and digital payment processing, to address pain points in the voluntary carbon market.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Cannon-Brookes warns ‘rebel alliance’ is building against AGL’s board (WA Today): Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes says an investor revolt is slowly building at AGL amid shareholders’ frustration with the board for ignoring calls for stronger climate action and significant doubts about how breaking up the 180-year-old utilities giant will increase its value. With just five weeks to go until shareholders vote on a controversial proposal to divide AGL’s retail division and carbon-heavy power stations into two separate businesses, the Atlassian co-founder is ramping up efforts to convince investors to block the demerger. AGL’s board has called on shareholders to support the split.

Cannon-Brookes plotting third takeover bid: AGL (The Australian): AGL Energy says Mike Cannon-Brookes does not have a vision for the company but the billionaire says his job is to act as a shareholder.

Regulators turn up heat on corporate greenwashing (Australian Financial Review): For decades companies have been attaching environmental claims to their products and company brand. But increasingly, Australia’s corporate regulators are saying that this has more value than PR polish – it is financial. And they have greenwashing in their sights. As regulators ratchet up their scrutiny of environmental claims, businesses are feeling the heat.

GREEN PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

BP reportedly set to take stake in Asian Renewable Energy Hub in the Pilbara (The West Australian): BP has reportedly agreed to take a stake in the Asian Renewable Energy Hub in the East Pilbara. The Australian newspaper said the British-owned energy giant was expected to next week announce the purchase of an equity interest of about 30 per cent in AREH, alongside the project’s existing owners, CWP Global, Vestas and Pathway Investments. The project includes 26 gigawatts of wind and solar generation. much of which would be used to produce green hydrogen and ammonia.

Zinc giant seals 9GW wind and solar pipeline for Australian green hydrogen plans (Renew Economy): Ark Energy Corp, the offshoot of Korea Zinc, has sealed the purchase of a 9GW pipeline of wind and solar projects as it plots its expansion into green hydrogen production. Ark Energy has completed the purchase of Epuron Holdings, originally announced just before Christmas last year, that includes a pipeline of 4.2GW of “early stage” utility scale wind and solar projects, and an “investigation” pipeline of another 4.8GW. The company, linked to big Sun Metals zinc smelter near Townsville that is one of the biggest single energy customers in the country, says the purchase is its most significant to date in its green energy transition.

Queensland inks deal to supply green hydrogen to major European port (Renew Economy): The Queensland government has signed a major partnership agreement with Europe’s largest seaport to cooperate on developing a green hydrogen export industry between Australia and Europe. Queensland minister for energy, renewables and hydrogen, Mick de Brenni, announced the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Queensland and the Port of Rotterdam in The Netherlands to collaborate on the development of hydrogen export supply chains.

WA drivers offered $3500 electric vehicle rebate on one hand, taxes on the other (WA Today): Drivers in the market for an electric or hydrogen vehicle in Western Australia will get a $3500 rebate towards a new purchase but will have to start paying a per-kilometre tax in five years to go towards new roads and maintenance. The state government revealed a $60 million pre-budget announcement on Tuesday which would see $36.5 million set aside for 10,000 West Australians looking to buy a vehicle up to a price of $70,000.

OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST

Avoid using gas as ‘transition’ fuel in move to clean energy, study urges (The Guardian): Countries should move from coal to renewable energy without shifting to gas as a “transition” fuel to save money, as high gas prices and market volatility have made the fossil fuel an expensive option, analysis has found. Natural gas has long been touted as a “transition” fuel for economies dependent on coal for their power needs, as it has lower carbon dioxide emissions than coal but requires similar centralised infrastructure, and gas-fired power stations take only a couple of years to build. Earlier this year, before Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Commission angered green campaigners by including gas as a “bridge” to clean energy in its guidebook for green investment.

Putin pushes renewables to record year, but strong policy vital beyond 2022 (Renew Economy): The International Energy Agency is expecting another record-breaking year for global renewable energy in 2022, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes a strong case for locally generated power. But the outlook to 2023 is not as robust. The IEA’s 2022-23 Renewable Energy Market Update, published on Thursday, says global renewable energy capacity is expected to grow by another 8% over the course of 2022, adding a total of almost 320GW for the year, compared to the record 295GW added in 2021.

World set to breach 1.5 degree warming threshold within five years (Australian Financial Review): The world is creeping closer to the warming threshold international agreements are trying to prevent, with nearly a 50-50 chance that Earth will temporarily hit that temperature mark within the next five years, teams of meteorologists across the globe predicted. With human-made climate change continuing, there’s a 48 per cent chance that the globe will reach a yearly average of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels of the late 1800s at least once between now and 2026, a bright red signal in climate change negotiations and science, a team of 11 different forecast centres predicted for the World Meteorological Organisation late on Monday (Tuesday AEST).

Australia has rich deposits of critical minerals for green technology. But we are not making the most of them … yet (The Conversation): As the transition to clean energy accelerates, we will need huge quantities of critical minerals – the minerals needed to electrify transport, build batteries, manufacture solar panels, wind turbines, consumer electronics and defence technologies. That’s where Australia can help. We have the world’s largest supply of four critical minerals: nickel, rutile, tantalum and zircon. We’re also in the top five for cobalt, lithium, copper, antimony, niobium and vanadium. Even better, many of these minerals can be produced as a side benefit of mining copper, aluminium-containing bauxite, zinc and iron ores. But to date, we are not making the most of this opportunity. Many of these vital minerals end up on the pile of discarded tailings. The question is, why are we not mining them? Compared to other major critical mineral suppliers such as China, we are lagging behind.

Australia could rapidly shift to clean transport – if we had a strategy. So we put this plan together (The Conversation): Australia has no clear strategy to decarbonise transport. That’s a problem, because without a plan, our take-up of clean technologies like electric cars, trucks and buses is slow. It’s stopping us from meeting our climate commitments. And it leaves us paying exorbitant prices for imported oil at the fuel pump, as well as in the cost of groceries and services. The good news? Over the last year, 18 transport and energy experts have created this independent, science-based summary of what is now possible in cleaning up land, sea and air transport as well as what will become possible in coming decades.

6 months after the climate summit, where to find progress on climate change in a more dangerous and divided world (The Conversation): Six months ago, negotiators at the United Nations’ Glasgow climate summit celebrated a series of new commitments to lower global greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Analysts concluded that the new promises, including phasing out coal, would bend the global warming trajectory, though still fall short of the Paris climate agreement. Today, the world looks ever more complex. Russia is waging a war on European soil, with global implications for energy and food supplies. Some leaders who a few months ago were vowing to phase out fossil fuels are now encouraging fossil fuel companies to ramp up production.?