“For the birds:” CCA chair Matt Kean questions if ageing coal plants can go longer

Coal stations are reaching their end of-life and need to be retired, the Climate Change Authority chair says, regardless of moves to keep them running longer.

The head of a top climate agency is casting doubt over the extended operating life of Queensland coal power stations, suggesting they are already struggling to stay online.

Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean is unconvinced by the Queensland government’s decision to keep the state-owned Callide power station open longer.

“The idea that you can extend Callide – which, don’t forget, was out for the last couple of years because it didn’t work – the idea you can extend that for another 19 years is for the birds,” the former NSW Liberal minister said at the Investor Group on Climate Change summit on Thursday.

“So just because they’re saying they’re going to extend these coal-fired power stations, doesn’t mean they’re going to work.”

The coal-fired power station in central Queensland has been plagued with problems, including an explosion and fire in 2021 that triggered widespread blackouts.

Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki says keeping the state’s coal fleet operating “as long as needed”, rather than the 2035 closures pursued by his predecessors, will underpin a clean energy transition “grounded in the realities of consumer needs, infrastructure costs and deliverability time frames”.

Environmental groups warn a longer operating life for coal could jeopardise emissions-reduction goals, though the Queensland government maintains it can still meet pre-existing state pollution cuts.

Kean told the summit replacing ageing coal-fired stations with wind, solar and storage is key to meeting national climate goals of a 62-70 per cent emission reduction by 2035, a range informed by Climate Change Authority guidance.

“Ninety per cent of the coal-fired power stations that have been underpinning this economy will be at an end of technical life by 2035,” he said.

“We need to do this, regardless of what some of the naysayers say.”

Mr Kean also singled out diesel fuel rebates as a priority policy change at the federal level, arguing the billions saved annually could instead be funnelled into decarbonisation for businesses and households.

University of Melbourne climate scientist Joelle Gergis underscored the urgency of the climate challenge and said global emissions reductions targets were well off track. 

“Basically, we need a 43 per cent reduction by 2030 in global emissions,  but if you look at current policy currently in place, we’re on track for two per cent,” Dr Gergis said at the forum.

“If we just continue on the track that we’re on, we’re looking at global warming in the order around 3.6C.”

The consequences of unchecked warming include Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 becoming an “average summer” by 2040 under a 2C scenario, she warned. 

Guy Debelle, chair of Funds SA and former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank, said climate risks were still not being factored into investment horizons.

That was despite then-governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney warning a decade ago that climate change was “the tragedy of the horizon” and posed a major threat to the financial system. 

“These effects are happening, they’re either happening now, some of them, but they’re only going to get worse over the investment horizon,” Dr Debelle said at the conference. 

Source: AAP