Policy & Planning

Greens’ Rattenbury to replace Corbell as ACT climate minister

Published by
ACT climate and sustainability minister Shane Rattenbury

ACT chief minister Andrew Barr has named the Territory’s new minister for climate and sustainability as Greens member Shane Rattenbury – marking only the second time a Greens minister has held a climate and sustainability portfolio in Australian politics.

Rattenbury – who also retains the justice and corrections portfolios – has big shoes to fill in climate and sustainability, taking the reins from Simon Corbell, who is retiring after 19 years in Territory politics.

As we noted earlier this month, Corbell is celebrated in the renewables industry as the architect of a nation-leading energy development agenda that has put the ACT on a path to 100 per cent renewables by 2020 – and which also kept Australia’s entire renewable energy industry afloat during sustained attack from federal and state Coalition governments.

Under Corbell, the ACT has pioneered battery storage, initiatives, helped introduce new forms of community ownership and been responsible for the construction of half a dozen wind farms – Hornsdale stages 1,2, 3, Ararat, Connooer Bridge, Sapphire and Crookwell – that would not have gone ahead otherwise.

He has also ensured that the ACT will become the centrepoint for investigations into the so-called hydrogen economy – and has unveiled trials for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and the use of excess wind and solar to provide “green” hydrogen for use in gas-fired power station.

Most of all, the 100 per cent renewable energy target – and its accompanying emissions reduction – stands as the benchmark for Australian climate and renewable energy policy and a blueprint for what is possible with a bit of careful planning.

According to the Greens website, Rattenbury has lived in Canberra for more than 20 years, where he studied economics and law at the ANU, and then, after a short stint in the federal public service, followed his passion for the environment working for Greenpeace, both in Canberra and overseas.

In 2008, Shane was elected to the Legislative Assembly as one of four Green MLAs, and became the first Greens Speaker of a parliament anywhere in the world. As the Greens Spokesperson on Climate Change and Environment, and Attorney-General and Emergency Services, he worked to secure the ACT Government’s climate change target and campaigned for equal marriage rights.

Sophie Vorrath

Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. She is the co-host of the Solar Insiders Podcast. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.

Recent Posts

Build it and they will come: Transmission is key, but LNP make it harder and costlier

Transmission remains the fundamental building block to decarbonising the grid. But the LNP is making…

23 December 2024

Snowy Hunter gas project hit by more delays and blowouts, with total cost now more than $2 billion

Snowy blames bad weather for yet more delays to controversial Hunter gas project, now expected…

23 December 2024

Happy holidays: We will be back soon

In 2024, Renew Economy's traffic jumped 50 per cent to more than 24 million page…

20 December 2024

Solar Insiders Podcast: A roller coaster year in review – and the keys to a smoother 2025

In our final episode for the year, SunWiz's Warwick Johnston on the highs and the…

20 December 2024

CEFC creates buzz with record investment in poles and wires, as Marinus bill blows out again

CEFC winds up 2024 with record investment in two huge transmission projects, as Marinus reveals…

20 December 2024

How big utilities manipulate the energy market, even with a high share of wind and solar

Regulator says big energy players are manipulating prices to their benefit. It's not illegal, but…

20 December 2024