Federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen has touted his government’s plan for “free solar”, its home battery plan and South Australia’s world-leading renewables share in a final pitch to secure hosting rights for next year’s UN climate conference.
Bowen addressed the COP30 conference in Belem on Monday (Brazil time), to present Australia’s “National Statement”, and to try and unblock the deadlock with Türkiye over who should get to host COP31 in 2026.
He re-iterated Australia’s new 2035 emissions reduction target – 62 per cent to 70 per cent below 2005 levels – and said Australia is making good progress on renewables, which in September overtook coal as the largest source of electricity on the country’s main grid for the first time.
“More than one third of Australian homes have solar panels on their roofs,” Bowen said.
“Some of those installed panels because they want to address climate change, but most of them did it because what’s good for the planet is also good for your pocket.
“We have so much solar now that we are introducing Solar Sharer – a retail offer including three hours of free power in the middle of the day, even for households without panels.
“And over 125,000 households have now installed batteries since 1 July, thanks to our Cheaper Home Batteries program. That’s 1000 households each and every day installing a battery.
“With a solar panel on the roof, and a battery in your garage, households will decide what they do with their energy. It is clear we are in a decade of electrification.”
Bowen also appeared at one of the side events hosted in conjunction with the Australian pavilion, this one unveiling a report from the Clean Energy Investor Group on the extraordinary progress in South Australia, which leads the world in the integration of wind and solar, and which hopes to be the host of COP31.
South Australia, the CEIG report notes, boasted an average 74 per cent wind and solar penetration in the last 12 months, and aims to reach 100 per cent “net renewables” by 2027, and further expand its renewable opportunities via green hydrogen and green steel in the years to come.
Over the weekend, South Australia posted two new renewable penetration records, with the new peak of 157.2 per cent of local demand reached early on Sunday morning. The excess power is stored in the state’s growing fleet of utility scale and household batteries, or exported to neighbouring states.
The 32-page report highlights the high penetration of rooftop solar – one in two homes have rooftop PV and their combined output sometimes matches all of state demand – and the fact that on around 300 days last year, the state’s power demands were fulfilled entirely by renewables at some point during the day.
“South Australia proves that clean energy systems can be reliable, secure and affordable. It is the Denmark down under – an example the world can learn from,” said Richie Merzian, CEO of the CEIG.
“Over the last fifteen years, South Australia has quietly led the country, and arguably the world in the clean energy transition, with three quarters of all electricity consumed now renewables and half of all homes with rooftop solar.”
South Australia sourced just one per cent of its electricity needs from renewables just 16 years ago.
“We are in it and we are in it to win it,” Bowen told the event. Let me make it clear, we’re not going anywhere.
“South Australia’s not going anywhere. It’s the fight we’ve going to have because it is very much in Australia’s interests and I believe in the worlds interest, having Australia as the President of COP31. That’s what we’re working on. That’s what we intend to do.”
If the impasse with Türkiye cannot be resolved – all UN decisions are taken by consensus, not majority vote (which Australia would clearly win) – then the COP31 hosting defaults to Bonn, the base of the UN’s climate organisation.
Turkiye had reportedly proposed a “split” hosting, but this has been rejected by Australia because of the complexity and logistical issues, and because it is not actually within the rules.
Meanwhile, Royce Kurmelovs, who is on the ground in Belem, reports that Mike Kaiser, the head of the Department of Climate Change Energy, the Environment and Water, admitted it is not always “blindingly obvious” that there is political support among the wider Australian public to justify faster action to address climate change.
During a panel discussion, and in response to questions from the audience about Australia’s expansion of fossil fuel production, Kaiser pointed to attacks on democratic institutions globally as placing a “constraint” on what actions a democratic government can take.
“One of the things about maintaining democracy is ensuring that democratic institutions work and deliver for people, but it also realistically provides a constraint, sometimes on the pace of reform,” Kaiser said.
“And we absolutely need to be conscious of that, and government always plays that balance of, how quickly can we reform without straining, you know, the very underpinnings of democracy.”
Asked to expand on these comments, given the push for a repeal of the diesel rebate and the massive Labor majority in the lower house and the continued political success of Teal independents, Kaiser suggested it was not “blindingly obvious” there were votes in addressing climate change.
“If it was blindingly obvious, if it was blindingly beneficial to a government, politically, it would do it tomorrow,” he said. “These forums are the key to democratic action and helping governments to see the need to shift.”
As the head of a government department, he said the bureaucracy’s role was to provide the “facts” and it was government’s role to “balance” competing views, a task that he characterised as “complex”.
“There are alternatives to democracy, if we wanted to give those a try,” he said.
Kaiser has been a significant figure within Queensland Labor, recently heading up the Department of Premier and Cabinet before being stood down under the government headed by David Crisafulli.
He previously served as Director-General of the Queensland Department of Resources and the Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning.
In a separate question, Kaiser was asked about what consideration his department had given to the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the obligations of states to respond to climate change that found states that continue to develop fossil fuels may be held legally liable.
“That’s under review across government, we’re all getting our heads around that judgment and its implications,” he said.
Bowen also announced that Australia would be signing up to the Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative.
The initiative involves a global coalition of public and private organisations that work to grow demand for low carbon industrial materials. Led by the UK and India, the group’s members include Canada, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
Note: This story has been updated to provide clarity over the specific questions that Kaiser was respond to.
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