“The silence has been deafening:” Matt Kean urges industry to take on renewable naysayers

Former NSW energy minister and treasurer and the newly named chair of the Climate Change Authority has urged the clean energy industry to take on the disinformation and anti-renewable propaganda, saying that the “silence has been deafening.”

Kean, a Liberal who managed to secure bi-partisan support for his NSW infrastructure roadmap to replace the state’s ageing coal fired generators with a mix of renewables and storage, says the climate wars are over in NSW, but not in Australia as a whole.

“We took on the naysayers. In some ways, we won,” Kean said in a speech to the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney on Tuesday.

“In New South Wales at least, the climate wars are over at a political level. I’m proud of the fact we achieved a political consensus and cross-party support for the legislation that underpins the Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.

“But it doesn’t mean the deniers have vacated the field. The opposite is true.”

Kean’s comments come as the federal Coalition unveils its policy to build nuclear power plants at a minimum of seven sites across Australia, with few details about how that would be done, and criticism about its claims it would need no knew transmission infrastructure and would be cheaper than renewables and storage.

The renewables industry has largely dismissed the claims, but is only now starting to take a strong public position on it as it becomes clear that a political disinformation campaign, and its widespread amplification in mainstream media, is starting to have an impact in polls.

Kean says the propaganda from vested interests, seeking to protect their profit from fossil fuel industries, is demonising renewables, calling for more coal, and launching scare campaigns about “when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine”, and the impact on whales – most of it on social media pages and at public rallies.

Kean says this is eroding confidence, bit by bit, in the value of cheap and clean energy and is leaving the transition in a fraught place.

“Their claims are fact free and easy to combat. It should be a task that industry relishes. But the silence has been deafening,” Kean said.

“It makes no sense. The future of the planet is on the line… but so is the fate of the very businesses in which you invest and work.

“You have the tide of capital working to your advantage. You have the backing of science. You can marshal the truth and facts. You have the future on your side.

“So take on the challenge. Enter the arena. Do it with urgency and confidence – and with an understanding that public sentiment can be a fragile thing. And do it because there is still hard work to be done to deliver a successful transition,” Kean said.

‘We will need to continue to systematically dismantle the barriers that are impeding investment in renewable energy projects. The urgent need for the delivery of new, clean energy supply should serve as a call to arms.”

Kean was named last month as the new head of the revamped Climate Change Authority, which will be advising the federal government on emission reduction targets, including the recommended targets for 2035 that the government must reveal as part of its obligations under the Paris climate treaty.

He did not comment on that role, as he does not take on the position until early August, and because he remains a parliamentarian and the member for Hornsby for another few weeks.

Kean also took aim at the planning regulations that have hindered the rollout of renewable energy projects, particularly in NSW.

“We know how much capacity needs to be added to the system,” he said. “We largely know where it will be built. We understand the challenge of building a contemporary transmission and distribution network. We have the capital.

“And yet too many projects are being forced to run a tortuous path to approval . . . bouncing between federal and state and sometimes local approval regimes. . . going from department to department, yet often receiving conflicting advice . . . and dragging on for years, when time is of the essence.

“I’m not for a minute suggesting we should sacrifice existing environmental protections in the name of expediency. But surely it is not beyond our capacity to design an approvals system that is permissive, efficient, and prudent.”

Kean suggested time limits on the processing of applications, similar to those in Europe and similar to those already in place in Australia for the housing industry.

“We will quickly lose our position in the queue if capital is sitting idle, waiting endlessly for a decision by planning authorities. And worse, we could lose the opportunities the energy transition offers to Australia, some of the lowest electricity prices in the world to help families and businesses and the chance to create thousands of new jobs.”