Public Policy Papers

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Parent Category: Publications

Author: Geoff Dyke, Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining & Energy Union

Key Points

• The CFMMEU Mining & Energy Division of Victoria (the Union) supports Victoria’s transition to low-carbon power generation sources. It urges that energy decisions be made with system reliability, economic viability, and Victorians’ jobs in mind.
• The Union is concerned by the approach of using only non-dispatchable renewable energy sources, supplemented by hydro and battery storage, for Victoria’s energy transition. It believes that this will lead to major blackouts, unaffordable electricity and the future economic shutdown of Victoria’s industry, resulting in massive job losses and a decline in citizen wealth.
• Coal plant workers and their communities demand a ‘Just Transition’ of their industry, a transition where their livelihoods are not unwittingly destroyed by the rush to reduce emissions.
• Nuclear power is a proven choice of a dispatchable and economically viable, zero greenhouse gas emission power generation technology, that is available today. The nuclear prohibition in Victoria should be lifted to allow sufficient time to replace existing generation with nuclear reactors.
• The guarantee of a Just Transition should also provide the essential social licence to satisfy any concerns in local communities about the safe operation of the nuclear industry.
  

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Parent Category: Publications

 Author: Robert Pritchard, Energy Policy Institute of Australia

Key Points

• The absence of a truly technology-neutral energy vision has left a gaping hole in the electricity sector in Australia. The Australian electricity market is failing to attract substantial investment from corporate and institutional investors, the money is lying idle and climate risk is not being addressed.
• There have been calls to impose a domestic emissions price. However, no-one can explain how payments that disappear into general revenue will reduce climate risk.
• There are lots of alternatives. One would be to establish an innovation fund, exclusive to the electricity sector and largely directed by industry. Levies could be based either on turnover or on emissions, with the proceeds being recycled into technology-neutral, emissions-mitigation initiatives, instead of disappearing into general revenue.
• The Federal government is starting work on an “emissions reduction technology roadmap”. It remains to be seen whether this will be genuinely technology-neutral. An innovation fund would help align this work with the global “net zero by 2050” emissions target.

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Parent Category: Publications

Author: Robert Pritchard, Energy Policy Institute of Australia

Key Points

• This short annotated bibliography is aimed at facilitating community understanding of the range of economic and technical risks that climate policies can pose for the reliable, flexible operation of power systems.

• Excerpts from a cross-section of published materials have been included. Some materials contradict others. They have been selected, not because they are right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, but because the Energy Policy Institute of Australia believes they may influence future policymaking and ought therefore to be taken into account.

• In compiling this bibliography, the Institute has taken a technology-neutral approach.

• Depending on responses to the publication of this bibliography, it could be the first of a number of future editions.

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Parent Category: Publications

 Author: Robert Pritchard, Energy Policy Institute of Australia

Key Points

•  An environmental court in New South Wales has found that the greenhouse gas emissions of a new coal mining project, even the future emissions from offshore combustion of the coal that is exported by the project, constitute a valid ground for refusing development consent because they will cause the climate to change.
• The finding is illusory, if not false.
• The finding poses an obstacle to all future coal mining projects and all other projects in NSW that may directly or indirectly give rise to significant emissions.
• The finding is likely to encourage opponents of climate change in other countries to consider legal action as a tool in the global campaign against climate change beyond whatever commitments their government may have made under the Paris Agreement.
• The finding brings upheaval to domestic energy and climate policy in Australia. It may warrant a re-examination by all governments of their energy and climate policies in the context of their bilateral and multilateral commitments.

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Parent Category: Publications

 Author: John McDonnell, Principal, McDonnell Policy Analysis

Key Points

• Populist policy interventions have destroyed political consensus and given rise to unsustainable energy policy in Australia.
• At the present time, neither of the major Australian political parties has an energy policy that can last past one electoral cycle.
• Politicians have to make difficult choices between the destruction of sectors of the Australian economy and minimising the risk from climate change. They need reliable evidence about costs to enable them to make these choices without causing unnecessary harm. They need to know the least-cost way of achieving the agreed level of emission reduction while producing reliable and stable energy flows. 

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Parent Category: Publications

Author: Robert Pritchard, Energy Policy Institute of Australia

Key Points

• The climate has become the main driver of change in the energy industry.
• In many countries, this has led to renewable energy becoming the fastest-growing form of low-carbon energy. However, power systems were never designed for renewable energy. Intermittency poses a challenge to power systems that is growing faster than the share of renewables. 
• Modern nuclear energy is becoming recognised as an essential technology in future low-carbon energy systems.
• Nine countries that are members of the Clean Energy Ministerial forum have already signed on to the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (‘NICE Future’) initiative, with Canada positioning itself to play a prominent part.
• Nuclear energy is not only a low-carbon response to climate change but it represents a market opportunity to supply 20% of the world’s electricity by 2050.
• Australia has much to gain by joining the international NICE Future initiative and tracking and pursuing industrial-scale, fit-for-purpose, low-carbon energy solutions.

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