Major business and farming groups say Australia’s existing 2030 climate targets are “critical” and have warned against chopping and changing energy policy, in a shot across the bows of the Coalition.
On Thursday 18 organisations – including some closely aligned with the Coalition’s core constituencies – issued a joint statement saying investors required a “certain, credible and consistent policy framework”.
The Coalition has refused to commit to Australia’s existing target of cutting emissions by 43% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, despite the Paris climate accord saying that countries must not backtrack on their commitments.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has also sought to raise the alarm about the government’s yet-to-be-set target for 2035 and has instead promised to embrace nuclear power as a longer-term solution.
But the Australian Industry Group, the National Farmers’ Federation and the Property Council of Australia were among the groups to issue the statement backing Australia’s current integrated system plan as “the best roadmap we have for the national electricity market”.
“Australia’s existing national emissions and energy targets for 2030 are critical foundations for the investments we need to deliver reliable, affordable and clean energy,” they said in the statement.
“Achieving them and the deeper targets that must follow on the road to net zero will take further and sustained effort.”
The Australian Energy Council, Energy Networks Australia and the Energy Users’ Association of Australia also backed the statement.
They all said governments, regulators and stakeholders must all commit to “a credible and consistent energy framework” in order to “attract finance at the lowest cost of capital and enable all our sectors to efficiently plan, resource and deliver just and timely transition to net zero emissions”.
The 18 organisations, including the Investor Group on Climate Change, said planning for Australia’s energy future “needs to be evidence-based, transparent and founded in wide consultation”.
They cited “robust evidence that Australia requires more renewable energy at all scales, a cost efficient mix of firming resources, growing and well-coordinated consumer energy resources, more efficient buildings, and stronger smarter transmission and distribution networks to connect it all up”.
The groups called for “urgent heavy lifting this decade to upgrade and extend our electricity systems”.
“Thermal power stations are retiring soon and power demand will grow with the electrification of more industries, cars and buildings.”
Those involved in organising the statement said it was another important sign of the breadth of business and community support for achieving Australia’s energy and climate goals.
It united environment and welfare groups – such as the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF-Australia, Environment Victoria and the Australian Council of Social Service – with a range of industry organisations.
They include the Australian Aluminium Council, Cement Industry Federation and the Australian Steel Institute.
The government is sharpening its attack on the Coalition’s climate credentials, with the energy minister, Chris Bowen, arguing the opposition’s nuclear policy was “a tactic to divert, delay and avoid action on climate”.
“It’s a ploy to keep coal running longer and at massive costs to reliability and emissions,” Bowen told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
The chair of the Australian Energy Regulator, Clare Savage, told the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney that the country was unlikely to have nuclear reactors operating before 2050, more than a decade after the federal opposition’s target.
The opposition’s energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, told the Sydney summit the Coalition did not believe in “putting all our eggs in one basket”.
“We have a basic position which is you do not close baseload power stations prematurely,” O’Brien said.
Bowen is due to meet with state and territory energy and climate ministers on Friday.
