Extract from The Guardian
Climate minister Chris Bowen says opponents of climate action have seized on cost-of-living crisis to resume campaign against clean energy transition.
Wed 2 Nov 2022 01.00 AEDT
Last modified on Wed 2 Nov 2022 01.01 AEDTIn the wake of a new Guardian Essential poll that suggests some Australians believe renewables are a significant contributor to higher power prices, Bowen will use a speech in Sydney on Wednesday to argue the current global energy crisis underlines the need for a faster and more orderly transition to renewables, because renewables are the cheapest form of generation.
The climate minister will warn that long-term opponents of action to address the climate crisis – a coterie he characterises as “the usual suspects” – are already using increases in the cost of living and soaring power bills as a justification to “delay or avoid the need to decarbonise and drive towards renewables”.
Bowen will point to a “daily drip feed of editorials and opinion pieces” in recent weeks blaming high power prices on renewable technology rather than the critical causal factor, which is the global shock in energy markets created by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
The climate minister will note the promulgators of this line “are the same people who have moved from excuse to excuse, alibi to alibi, to avoid climate action, and have denied Australia the benefits of taking real action on climate over the last decade”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, used his recent budget reply speech to target the government over its push to reach 82% renewables by 2030, contending it would only add to the cost of electricity bills for struggling families and businesses.
The latest Guardian Essential poll underscores the potential salience of Dutton’s contentions. It shows respondents are more inclined to blame profiteering by energy companies or “efforts to fight climate change, such as the shift towards renewable energy” than the war in Ukraine for a significant increase in power bills.
The poll also confirms most people want governments to intervene in the market to deliver consumer price relief.
Bowen will say the Albanese government is working with states and regulators on a regulatory intervention to help address high power prices, after an “honest” Treasury forecast in last week’s budget pointed to a 56% increase over this year and next.
Bowen will use Wednesday’s speech to double down on Labor’s plans to roll out high voltage transmission infrastructure to accommodate more renewable generation in the national electricity grid, and push back against the political positioning.
“We cannot let, and the government will not let, the current crisis interrupt our drive towards cleaner, cheaper, renewable energy,” the climate minister will say.
“This transition is even more important – not only for reasons of climate, as compelling as those reasons are – but also because renewable energy is the cheapest form of energy, which is rather handy in an affordability crisis.”
Bowen will note that a majority of Australians voted for more serious action to address the threat of the climate crisis in the federal election, but that doesn’t mean the decade-long climate wars are over.
He will say the Liberal and National parties are intent on promulgating a debate about nuclear energy as a “rearguard attempt to undermine and deny the transition to renewables”.
Bowen will argue the small modular nuclear reactors championed by some in politics and the media have the status of “someday, maybe, reality”, because none are licensed and no projects have achieved financial close.
“Whilst the May election was a big step forward in ending the climate wars, and resulted in the election of a government with a strong climate agenda and a progressive majority in both chambers, we should not pretend that there are no voices seeking to take us backwards, and they must be countered if we are to ensure the progress we are making is cemented in.”
Bowen will underscore the point by reprising what happened after the last major climate election.
“In 2007, a Labor government was elected with a strong climate agenda, and the Liberal party took an emissions trading scheme to that election.
“It was widely thought that we had reached a national consensus on climate change. It wasn’t to be.”
Bowen will argue it is important to speak plainly about what has happened in the past, saying for too long, too many politicians and commentators have got away with telling Australians that action on climate change comes at the expense of their economic security.
“It’s always been a lie,” the climate minister will say. “It’s never been more than a lie today, with the economic opportunities for Australia replete before us.
“It now falls to us make that opportunity a reality, and to engage the Australian people in a frank and open conversation as we do so. And that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
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