Queensland’s Premier, David Crisafulli, is trying to have his cake and eat it too.
His decisions to repeal Queensland’s Renewable Energy Targets and keep Queensland’s coal power stations open for decades to come are designed to appeal to the pro-fossil fuel members of his party. But these decisions are completely at odds with the Queensland LNP’s renewed commitment to reach 75% emissions reduction by 2035.
The Premier is trying to play both sides – he’s attempting to keep the loud anti-renewable minority happy while still appealing to the majority of voters who have demonstrated a desire for climate action. But the truth is that by sitting on the fence the Crisafulli Government is not delivering for anyone.
Their energy policies will not prepare regional economies for inevitable change, get power bills down or deliver the emissions reductions they promised.
The recently released Five Year Energy Roadmap is a glossy brochure filled with numbers that don’t quite stack up when held up to any scrutiny.
If we go by what’s in the Energy Roadmap, Queensland will reach approximately 55% renewable energy in ten years time – but the Roadmap significantly underestimates the amount of progressed solar and wind farms, and utility-scale storage that is very likely to be built in Queensland over the next 5 years.
A Queensland Conservation Council analysis shows that the Roadmap under forecasts renewable energy and storage by at least 3.4 GW by 2030. These projects represent over $6.5 billion of investment in Queensland’s economy, mostly in regional Queensland, along with more than 1,500 construction jobs.
Between 2030 to 2035 the Roadmap forecasts that no large-scale solar or storage projects will get built in Queensland – a staggering assumption given that there are currently five solar farms and 31 utility storage projects under construction.
It looks like the Crisafulli Government have deliberately underestimated the amount of renewable energy and storage that will be built to justify keeping ageing and failing coal power stations open for longer. But denying reality will have devastating impacts for regional communities and our power bills.
We need to be proactively planning the renewable energy roll out so that we build renewable projects in the right places, and secure the best outcomes for regional communities.
The Energy Roadmap was an opportunity to better design and progress Renewable Energy Zones to make sure that development is better coordinated and projects stop being built in high-value conservation and agricultural areas.
It was an opportunity to demonstrate how renewable energy will be developed to safeguard Queensland’s existing heavy industry and unlock new clean manufacturing opportunities to keep powering regional economies.
This is especially important given Rio Tinto’s recent break up with coal in favour of powering their Gladstone smelter and refineries with renewable energy backed by storage.
Instead, there was nothing new in the Roadmap to help regional communities and impacted workforces navigate the inevitable transformation of the global economy away from fossil fuels. They just kick the can down the road.
The Roadmap also shackles Queenslanders to ageing coal power stations and expensive gas. Rolling coal breakdowns are one of the key reasons for electricity price spikes, and so far in 2025 gas has been four times more expensive to run than wind. Creating policy uncertainty and stifling new renewable energy supply will only result in higher power bills.
On emissions, the Crisafulli’s Government’s decision to keep our ageing and polluting coal-fired power stations operating past their planned closure in 2035 means we’ll likely only reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2035 compared to the 2005 benchmark.
Unless the Crisafulli Government is going to make the agricultural sector and heavy industry do a disproportionate amount of heavy lifting, they’re not going to keep their promise to cut emissions by 75 per cent and keep Queenslanders safe from the worst impacts of climate change.
When you boil it down, the only beneficiaries of the Crisafulli Government’s confused Energy Roadmap are wealthy fossil fuel corporations who will get to keep making a mint from our resources and communities.
By sitting on the fence and not being brave enough to challenge the misconceptions held by some members of the Queensland Liberal National Party, the Premier is letting us all down.
Stephanie Gray is a senior campaigner at the Queensland Conservation Council.
