A disparate group including Australian mining lobbyists and environmentalists have banded together to back the government’s renewable energy transition plan, after opposition lawmakers called for it to be abandoned.
The Australian Industry Group joined with a coalition of organisations including the Clean Energy Council, the National Farmers’ Federation and the World Wildlife Fund to call for a “credible and consistent energy framework,” including the retention of the current 2030 emissions reduction target and greater investment in renewable energy.
“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,” they said in a joint statement Thursday.
The backing comes as Australian’s center-right opposition Liberal Party ramps up its criticism of the Labor government’s energy policies ahead of an election due by May 2025. Opposition leader Peter Dutton has raised concerns over large renewables projects, called for the dumping of the 2030 emissions target and pledged to introduce nuclear energy if he wins power.
Gas export giant Woodside Energy Group on Thursday joined with the organisations, issuing a separate statement to back the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2024 Integrated System Plan, which was released in late June. That called for greater renewable energy supply, backed up by battery storage and “gas-powered generation.”
Australian politics and energy policy have been riven for more than a decade by the so-called “climate wars,” with Labor’s attempts to bolster renewables supply rebuffed by the fossil-fuel supporting Liberals. Business leaders have complained that’s led to investment confusion and higher electricity prices, as the nation’s coal-reliant power grid comes under increasing strain.
The center-left Labor government has warned Dutton’s policy platform risks creating investment uncertainty around Australia’s green energy transition. Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who is seeking to meet a target for 82% renewable generation by 2030, will be joining with his state and territory counterparts for an Energy and Climate Change Ministers Council meeting on Friday.
“We don’t have the luxury of delaying investment in new generation for another 15 or 20 years while we wait for a new form of energy generation that Australia has never had,” Bowen said in a speech Wednesday.