State Liberals that set world’s first 100 per cent wind and solar target now want net zero to be dropped

The state Liberal party in South Australia appears to be in turmoil. Just two years short of reaching a world-leading milestone of 100 per cent net renewables in their own state, the state Liberals voted over the weekend to have Australia’s net zero target for 2050 to be thrown out the door.

In extraordinary scenes over the weekend, the state Liberal Party – in a series of motions that included acknowledging the devastating drought in parts of the state – agreed to call on their federal counterparts to rescind the 2050 target of net zero.

Far right Liberal Senator Alex Antic quickly boasted of the vote on X (see image above), declaring that “it’s time to scrap Net Zero and Save Australia!” A few hours later, state opposition leader Vincent Tarzia contradicted him and said the motion should not apply to South Australia.

Just to recap: Five years ago, when in government, the Liberals set the target of reaching 100 per cent net renewables by 2030. It was a stunning ambition, and unrivalled in the world because in South Australia, renewables means wind and solar and storage, as there is no hydro and no geothermal power.

The plan announced by the Liberals progressed so well that early last year, the re-elected Labor government accelerated the 100 per cent net renewables target to 2027, and later enshrined it in law as part of its Climate Change Act.

The target is still on track, with the state averaging 72 per cent wind and solar over the last 12 months, and with the new Goyder South wind project – the state’s biggest – ramping up and a fleet of new big batteries due to join the grid.

The ability to reach that target on schedule will likely depend on the ability of the new link to South Australia, Project Energy Connect, to be completed on time.

The first stage is complete, and allows an increase in transferable capacity of around 150 MW. The completed project will allow a total of 800 MW to be imported or exported on its lines.

The weekend vote, and apparent backflip by the state opposition leader, was seized upon by state Labor, with energy minister Tom Koutsantonis suggesting the state Liberal party was now in the hands of “extremists”.

It’s certainly another example of the differences between state and federal cohorts of the Liberal Party, and federal Coalition.

It was, after all, a state Liberal government in NSW that set out its ambitious renewable energy roadmap to replace the state’s ageing coal fired power generators, at a time that the federal Coalition government was doing its best to keep them online.

The NSW initiative, and the support of both urban Liberals and regional Nationals, owed much to the work of then energy minister Matt Kean, now chair of the Climate Change Authority.

The federal Coalition now finds itself at odds over net zero, with elements of both the federal Liberal party and the Nationals pushing for the scrapping of net zero targets for 2050 – considered to be the bare minimum Australia, and the rest of the world, needs to achieve in its efforts on climate change.

In Queensland, the newly elected state LNP government has vowed to rip up the previous state’s renewable energy targets – 50 per cent by 2030, and 80 per cent by 2035 – to ensure that it remains the most coal dependent state in the country, despite having some of the best solar and wind resources.

Like Antic, who posted the image at the top of this story on his account on X, the state planning minister Jarrod Bleijie is also triumphant, having posted this below on his Facebook page to celebrate the axeing of a previously approved $1 billion wind project last week.

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