The Guardian - Katharine Murphy
Business, welfare, climate and energy groups argue policy certainty needed to drive down power costs
Ahead of the first meeting of state energy ministers since Scott Morrison dumped the emissions reduction component of the national energy guarantee,
a coalition of 15 groups from the Business Council of Australia to the
Australian Council of Social Service have warned emissions reduction is
not an optional extra.
In a joint statement targeted at federal and state energy ministers
before talks this Friday, the groups say driving down power costs – the Morrison’s government’s stated priority
– is urgent. But they argue part of the means of achieving that is
being clear about future emissions reduction requirements, because that
creates policy certainty.
They say “addressing emissions and reliability are not only critical
in their own right, but are essential parts of achieving cost
reduction”.
Energy
ministers on Friday are due to discuss the reliability obligation of
the otherwise abandoned Neg, but not the 26% by 2030 emissions reduction
target for electricity now ditched by the federal government, with that
policy a casualty of the Liberal party’s leadership civil war.
The groups say certainty about the outlook for emissions reduction is
critical if Australia’s energy sector is to make an orderly transition,
and they warn that policy intervention could be required to help
low-income households, displaced workers and emissions intensive trade
exposed industries adjust to a low-emissions future.
The
groups also make a clear statement that Australia needs to remain in
the Paris agreement. “We support Australia’s full participation in the
Paris agreement and deployment of effective, efficient and equitable
plans in energy and the rest of the economy to deliver on Australia’s
Paris commitments,” the groups say.
“Continuing bipartisan commitment to Paris sends a clear long-term
signal to investors and contributes to the global solution needed to
minimise climate change.”
The signatories to the statement are the Ai Group, the Australian
Aluminium Council, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the
Australian Council of Social Service, the Australian Energy Council, the
Brotherhood of St Laurence, the Business Council of Australia, the
Clean Energy Council, the Energy Efficiency Council, Energy Networks
Australia, the Energy Users’ Association of Australia, the Investor
Group on Climate Change, the Property Council of Australia, the St
Vincent de Paul Society and Uniting Communities.
The statement comes as the Morrison government is pressing ahead with
a package of measures to reduce power prices, hoping to secure some
hip-pocket relief for voters ahead of the next election.
The package has not been well received by business and the energy
sector, with several stakeholders alarmed about the government’s threats
about breaking up power companies, and about the flow on impact of
proposed price regulation.
The federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, will attempt to seek
agreement from his state and territory counterparts on Friday to roll
out the price measures. In the event the states and territories refuse, Taylor has signalled the commonwealth will override them and make the changes unilaterally.
The government wants power companies to deliver customers out of
cycle price reductions in January next year, rather than in July when
determinations are normally made, with election timing in mind.
Additionally Taylor wants the states and territories to press ahead
with implementing the reliability obligation of the Neg, with a final
decision to be made in December.
He argues it is not a problem that his government dumped the
emissions reduction obligation because the electricity sector will
reduce pollution by 26% in “the early 2020s”.
“We
are very confident we are going to get to 26% well ahead of time,”
Taylor told Guardian Australia earlier this week. “The numbers are
clear.
“There will be a 250% increase in renewables in the next three years.
We are going from 17.5 terrawatt hours to 44.4 on the Energy Security
Board numbers, and since that work was done there has been almost 1,000
megawatts of new renewable capacity added to the pipeline.
“We are very confident we will get to 26% in the early 2020s.”
The government has also this week flagged backing new private investments in coal-fired power, and possibly indemnifying new projects against the future risk of a carbon price. Labor has criticised that idea.
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