Expert Views Make Way For Political Expediency In Climate Debate

Fairfax - Nicole Hasham

The patient's vital signs are not good. Power prices are high, and emissions haemorrhaging. Reliability and security of supply are in doubt. We need a treatment plan, and fast.
Such was the diagnosis of the national electricity market on Monday by Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel, the man whose blueprint to improve the system was supposed to take the politics out of energy policy. So, how's that working out?

A Clean Energy Target would help make sure that as ageing coal-fired power plants are retired, there is enough investment in renewables to replace them. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer

The answer is, pretty poorly. In his speech to the National Energy Summit on Monday, Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg gave the strongest hint yet that the prospect of any clean energy target was dead and buried, claiming the falling cost of renewable energy meant the subsidies were no longer necessary.
Cue the cycle of politicking and tail-chasing that has wasted more than a decade of Australian climate policy, frustrating the business community and leaving the public wondering: is any leader capable of stopping the bleeding?

Dr Alan Finkel insisted on Monday that Australia still needs a clean energy target. Photo: Ben Rushton

Let's be clear. Dr Finkel is Australia's top scientist. He spent six months working on the report. His expert panel consulted widely, visiting regulators and operators in Europe and the United States and commissioning a review of best practices from the International Energy Agency.
His call for a clean energy target wasn't without critics: less politically palatable options, such as an emissions intensity scheme, are widely thought to be a better way to cut emissions.
But Dr Finkel's brief prevented such a finding, and Australia needs policies to encourage renewables. So a clean energy target is better than nothing, as long as it is strong enough to meet Australia's commitments under the Paris climate deal.
The measure would build on the current renewable energy target, and help make sure that as ageing coal-fired power plants are retired, there is enough investment in renewables to replace them.

In a speech to the National Energy Summit on Monday, Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg gave the strongest hint yet that the Clean Energy Target was dead and buried. Photo: Ben Rushton

Dr Finkel, calm and armed with the facts, insisted on Monday that Australia still needs a clean energy target.
He says a massive drop in the price of renewables would mean the price of renewable energy certificates under the scheme would also fall, so the cost to electricity retailers, and their customers, would be minimal.
And a few years down the track, a government could increase the slope of the emissions reduction trajectory, having shown itself capable of managing the introduction of renewables without the sky falling in.
But in this erratic policy climate, the considered view of experts comes a far second to political expediency.
It was a Coalition government that in 1998 created the Australian Greenhouse Office, the world's first government agency dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Six years later the same government dismantled it.
In 2007 the Labor government created a Department of Climate Change. In 2013 it too was scrapped.
And of course, Australia became the first nation to undo legislated action on climate change, when the Abbott government repealed the Gillard government's carbon price (as well as slashing the renewable energy target and trying to abolish government agencies supporting the renewables sector).
Labor says it will support a clean energy target. Research shows a majority of Australians support it, and the business community is crying out for the investment certainty it would bring.
But a dogged rump of hard-right conservatives opposed to the target has Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by the collar.
Dr Finkel on Monday urged Australia to start its treatment regime and take the "red pill" – an orderly transition to a cleaner energy market, which starts with the clean energy target.
Let's hope the government's response is one we can swallow.

Links

• Chief Scientist makes last ditch plea for clean energy target
• Josh Frydenberg hints the government could back away from clean energy target
• Shorten pledges to overhaul energy market and renewable investment rules
• Back to the future as old climate battlelines re-emerge
• Shorten pledges to overhaul energy market and renewable investment rules
• Climate crunch: Australia to fail on Paris commitments without massive renewable switch
• Tony Abbott says dumping clean energy target would help Coalition win election
• Alan Finkel urges Turnbull to adopt clean energy target before states act
• Turnbull rejects efforts to ‘dumb down’ energy debate into renewables v coal
• Greens warn Labor not to do clean energy deal that protects coal power
• Coalition's Finkel response won't rule out new coal power stations, PM says
• Barnaby Joyce: I'll support a clean energy target – if coal is included
• Malcolm Turnbull leaves open alternative to clean energy target after internal criticism
• 'Too early to say' if Coalition will back clean energy target, Frydenberg says
• BlueScope Steel backs low emissions target as way to achieve energy balance
• Power prices will soar if energy policy doesn't change, Frydenberg warns
• Berejiklian to extend coalmine
• Shorten’s green jobs vision
• No surprise over CET end