Kane Thornton has called time on his 10-year stint as chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, with an announcement that he will step down from the role on August 01, after 15 years at the renewable industry peak body.
In a statement on LinkedIn on Wednesday, Thornton said he had made the “difficult decision to resign,” after deciding that he was ready for a break and the CEC was ready for new leadership, “for the next exciting phase of Australia’s transition to a clean energy future.”
“It has been an extraordinary privilege to lead the Clean Energy Council and be at the forefront of one of the most exciting, important and complex economic transitions in our lifetimes,” Thornton said.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved over the past 15 years – including doubling the amount of renewable in the past five years – and the strong foundation across the clean energy industry and peak body, to deliver the next phase of the energy transition.”
The CEC’s achievements on Thornton’s watch include advocating for the Renewable Energy Target, Capacity Investment Scheme, Hydrogen Headstart, institutions like ARENA and the CEFC, and industry initiatives such as the Connection Reform Initiative.
He says that Labor’s resounding victory in the federal election over the weekend, and strong mandate to continue to drive Australia’s energy transition, is the “cherry on top” of a long career advocating for renewables.
“You always want to leave the place better than how you found it … and, you know, in all sorts of metrics the industry is unrecognisable today to what it was 15 years ago,” he told Renew Economy in an interview on Wednesday.
“But there’s no doubt the, sort of, cherry on the top is the outcome on the weekend, and the policy continuity, the really strong mandate for clean energy. It’s as good as it gets in terms of… an opportunity to hand the button over to someone else to take forward with… a sector and an organisation that has enormous momentum and a cause for huge levels of optimism.”
Thornton says he counts the CEC’s most recent campaign, leading up to the federal election, as one of his proudest achievements.
“I’m super proud of the team and the work we did over the last sort of six months,” he tells Renew Economy. “I think the industry was facing an enormous challenge. And, you know, we saw huge amounts of misinformation, a massive campaign against clean energy, huge disruption of nuclear.
“The campaign that we ran …was assertive; we confronted the misinformation. It was fact and evidence based. …We really engaged and told our story in a way that I think [was] better than I’ve ever seen before from the from the industry.”
Another big achievement, he says, was the Renewable Energy Target (RET) review of 2016, which was led by the former Climate Change Authority and sort to rebuild and optimise the RET following the best efforts of the Abbott Coalition government to pull it apart following its own RET Review in 2012.
“[The 2016 Review] was probably another, sort of… existential crisis for the industry. And, you know, there was a concerted campaign, again, to negotiate and land an outcome that really set the industry up and delivered enormous waves of investment afterwards.”
CEC board chair Ross Rolfe said in a statement that Thornton had led the organisation through “a period of significant evolution for the sector,” and made an indelible contribution to CEC and the broader renewables industry.
“Kane has been at the forefront of creating the policy and the investment environment that has led to the transition and growth of the sector,” Rolfe said. During his tenure, renewables have become central to Australia’s energy future, now representing more than 40 per cent of Australia’s energy mix.
“Under Kane’s leadership, the organisation has grown in influence, professionalism and impact and is now one of the most significant, mature and influential peak bodies in Australia.
“Kane leaves not only an enduring legacy for the sector but has positioned the Clean Energy Council well for its next phase of growth amid greater policy certainty and investor confidence, which includes earning greater trust and support in the communities in which we operate.”
Thornton says that after 15 years of “intense leadership” he is now planning to take time off to “decompress, reflect and recharge. Stopping, riding and hiking, family and friends.”
“There is plenty to do over the next few months before I depart, including sharing some reflections and recognition of the extraordinary people who have shared this journey,” he said.
“It’s often the journey, it’s always the destination but it’s most importantly about the people.”
Thornton says that he leaves the CEC with “full confidence in the team, the Board and the broader industry” to get on with the renewable energy transition – but says there is still plenty of hard work left to do.
“There’s a clear mandate for the clean energy transition, but I think we’ve got a lot of work to do as far as continuing to develop the industry and how it engages local communities, how it shares benefits, how it communicates … social license challenges,” he tells Renew Economy.
“The election tells us that the majority, the vast majority of Australians, want a clean energy future, but we can’t be complacent about the sort of more localised elements of that.
“And I think we’ve got work to do as a peak body and as an industry to make sure that communities right around the country are really seeing and feeling all the benefits.
“We need to confront the misinformation. And how we interact with the local environment, how we leave a lasting, positive legacy, all of those things I think are going to be really important for the next chapter.
“And if we get all of that right, then we’re …never again going to have the sort of silly debates we’ve had about, ‘Will we, won’t we? Should we? Shouldn’t we be transitioning to clean energy?’”
The CEC board says it has commenced a national search for a new CEO to lead the organisation into its next phase.
