Greens push for 2035 net zero target in NSW as Labor sweats over Eraring closure

The Greens have announced plans to introduce legislation into both houses of the NSW parliament that will establish a climate change act, and set a net zero target for 2035.

The legislation, announced by Greens MP and climate change spokesperson Sue Higginson, also calls for a net zero commission to be established to guide the state towards its targets, and manage the exit of coal fired generation.

The push – almost certain to fail in the face of opposition from the Labor government and the Coalition, comes as NSW prepares to announce its position on the planned closure of the 2.88GW Eraring coal plant, the biggest in Australia, in August 2025.

The Labor government has received a “health check” report from Cameron O’Reilly, a former head of the lobby group for the country’s big energy utilities, with unconfirmed reports that it suggests the closure be delayed – a move that is now being dubbed “Coal-keeper 2.”

An extension might suit NSW Labor, which has said – even before the state election this year – that it wished the state still owned the coal plant, and that it did not want it to close so early. One suggestion is that it might defer closure of at least some of its units until after the next election in early 2027.

However, it faces problems. First is the question of compensation for Eraring’s owner Origin Energy, which has in turn agreed to an $18.7 billion takeover led by Canada’s Brookfield, which has vowed to accelerate the transition to wind, solar and storage with a $30 billion spending plan by 2030.

The NSW decision to be announced next week will also coincide with the release of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s annual 10-year outlook on supply and demand, which will likely identify potential shortfalls in coming years.

However, an update of its Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) released by AEMO in February predicted no breach of the strict interim reliability standard in NSW until 2027, and noted the risk of this would likely be reduced by a battery storage tender being held by the state government and other battery projects.

Since that time, the size of that battery storage tender has been increased nearly three-fold – from 380MW to 930MW – in a deal with the federal government. All the projects must be built by late 2025.

The Greens say a legislated net zero target for 2035 is needed given the months of global temperatures breaching records across the globe, and extreme weather events decimating the Northern Hemisphere.

“It is unequivocal that we must take rapid, urgent action to decarbonise and achieve a net zero target,” Greens MP and spokesperson for climate change Sue Higginson said in a statement.

“The science says this must be achieved by 2040 at the absolute latest, with a better target of 2035. Extending the life of polluting infrastructure like Eraring is incompatible with achieving this target.”

All the major clean energy groups have said that any extension to Eraring will be expensive and will cause investment in wind, solar and storage to stall.

The Coalition would be happy with that, given that they have called for a stop to new wind, solar and transmission projects, and for coal plants to be kept open until nuclear small modular reactors, which have not yet been built, are brought into production.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has justified this by stating that the current federal net zero target for 2050 means that the country doesn’t have to do anything in the short term.

This view is ridiculed by scientists who point out that urgent action is needed now to have any chance of limiting average global warming to 1.5°C, or at the very least below 2.0°C.

The federal intergenerational report – released on Thursday – says such an outcome could ruin Australia’s economy, with a cost of more than $423 billion in lost productivity over the next 40 years.

Victoria is facing issues with its rollout of renewables and transmission lines, but at least it has legislated emission reductions and renewable targets. NSW does not.

Higginson says a climate change act will create a legal requirement for NSW to move toward the only net zero target “that will ensure we keep our planet liveable.

“The need for urgent and radical action on climate has been emphasised more than ever in recent weeks but we are yet to see this being taken by the Government here in NSW. This action is non-negotiable,” Higginson said.

“What we have seen in recent months in Europe, Hawaii, North Africa, South Asia and Antarctica is frightening, we must do everything we can to move rapidly toward a net zero target.

“Prolonging the life of our coal fired power stations, subsidised by the people of NSW to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, is exactly what we shouldn’t do.”