Statements
Quentin Bryce in high-powered group calling for coal power to be phased out …
The former governor general Quentin Bryce is part of a high-powered group of academics, business leaders, financiers and energy providers urging the Turnbull government to extend and expand the national renewable energy target and create a market mechanism to govern an orderly phase out of coal-fired power in Australia.
Representatives of the group came to Canberra on Monday to meet the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, armed with an eight-point plan to drive a sequenced decarbonisation of the national energy market.
The intervention follows weeks of political attacks by the Turnbull government on state-based renewable energy schemes and the government’s continuing refusal to say whether it will use a planned review of its Direct Action policy next year to overhaul an emissions reduction framework experts say is woefully inadequate.
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The leadership forum on energy transition, led by the Australian Conservation Foundation and hosted by the University of New South Wales, has used the resumption of parliament to call on the Turnbull government to establish national rules, policies, regulations, markets and a basis for investment to drive an orderly transition away from coal-fired power.
As a first step, the group says the government needs to update Australia’s national electricity objective “to include a clear goal to accelerate Australia’s energy transition towards net zero emissions before 2050, to fulfil our domestic policy objectives and international commitments” …
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• The latest on coal … COALWIRE, here
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