John Connor, CEO, Carbon Market Institute
“The current energy crisis is a stark reminder of some of the pain points we’re going to see as part of the transition to net-zero emissions and the need for planning to manage this transition. Clearer guidelines are required for energy providers & broader industry to guide a smoother transition and assist their decarbonisation journey.”
“Stronger productivity and energy efficiency initiatives will certainly be required in the short term, but policies such as a strengthened Safeguard Mechanism will also be important in guiding longer term investments into clean technologies and reducing exposure to some of the volatilities in coal, oil and gas.”
Johanna Bowyer, Lead Research Analyst – Australian Electricity, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
“Australia is seeing astronomical energy prices due to high international coal and gas prices driven by sanctions on Russia, outages at Australian coal fired power plants, and Australian coal supply issues.
“Some solutions to this situation include increasing the energy efficiency of households, accelerating the build out of renewables, storage and transmission, facilitating an orderly exit of increasingly unreliable coal generators, and protecting domestic gas users from being exposed to high international gas prices by redirecting a small proportion of exports to the domestic market.”
Marija Petkovic, Founder and Managing Director – Energy Synapse
“The extremely high prices we are seeing in the wholesale electricity market are being driven by high coal and gas prices as well as ongoing outages at several coal-fired power stations. What this energy crisis shows more than anything is that Australia needs to urgently put politics aside and get on with the job of building vastly more renewable energy and energy storage to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
“Australia is blessed with some of the best renewable energy resources in the world as well as the space to harness them. This could be our biggest competitive advantage for decades to come.”
Prof. John Quiggin, Economist at University of Queensland
“The fastest way to increase Australia’s energy supply is a rapid increase in installations of solar PV, with battery backup. In the medium-term, this should be complemented by the expansion of wind energy along with the enhanced transmission network promised as part of Powering Australia.”
Tristan Edis, Director – Analysis and Advisory, Green Energy Markets
“If you want to lower energy bills and you want to do it reasonably quickly and permanently for those that really need help, you must look at addressing the poor quality of rental property energy efficiency.
“Australian houses have the worst thermal efficiency in the developed world. More people die of cold in their homes in Australia than they do in Sweden. As another example of how bad our homes are – Victorians use more energy to heat their homes than in far colder climates like the United Kingdom and Holland.
“Landlords have done well out of property price inflation but have proven utterly uninterested in taking advantage of incentive programs for things like solar, efficient heaters and water heaters and better insulation. It’s time to insist they do their bit to help low income households by installing more efficient heaters, better insulation and solar. This will provide a long-term fix for energy affordability and also help lower carbon emissions.”
Greg Bourne, Climate Councillor, energy expert, former President of BP Australasia and former advisor to Margaret Thatcher
“We knew this was coming. The oil and gas market has always been geopolitical, with inherent extreme price volatility, which rocks the world in times of crisis. Previous responses have been to explore and develop more oil and gas, setting ourselves up for the next crisis in which the oil and gas companies reap super profits while consumers reap the misery. When will we learn?”
“Consumers, manufacturers and everyone in the economy are now being squeezed by soaring fossil fuel prices. We must turn our back on traditional self-serving responses and accelerate our investments in renewable energy and storage to help protect ourselves from volatility, lower our emissions, create new industries and become more self-sufficient.”
“The Albanese government has a strong mandate for game-changing climate action. We need to see them put that into action now, to protect households and businesses from future price shocks and to strengthen our economy into the future.”
Andrew Stock, Climate Councillor, energy expert, former Origin Energy Executive and past director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation with over 40 years experience
“Australia must plan and implement steps to free itself from expensive, polluting and unreliable fossil fuels – and fast. The current energy crisis demonstrates starkly just how costly the absence of serious energy policies by the former Morrison Government has been. Now electricity consumers will be forced to pick up the tab. The former Federal government denying climate change and failing to deeply cut electricity emissions is costing Australian consumers dearly. Most of the nation has wasted a decade in the energy transition to renewables.”
“We need the new Australian federal government to step-up alongside the states and territory governments and get on with showing, finally, what strong climate and energy leadership looks like.”
David Leitch, Principal, ITK Services
“Electricity prices have risen firstly because La Niña has disrupted NSW and QLD coal supply. Supply to NSW generators is just 60% of the level two years ago and coal exports are down. The coal supply shortages, power generator break downs, coal prices at five times historic levels and seasonally weak renewable energy, has increased demand for gas by 15% of normal east coast demand. This has pushed gas prices very high.
“So in short, rain, high international prices, old coal generators and winter has seen electricity prices rise. The good news is that when the rain stops and spring comes things will improve a bit.”
Richie Merzian, climate & energy program director at The Australia Institute:
“Australia doesn’t have a gas supply problem; it has a gas export problem. As long as Australia remains dependent on gas and coal, Australian consumers will be over the barrel of global fuel prices influenced by events beyond our control.
“Allowing global coal and gas companies to export vast quantities of our resources may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it has locked us into exposure to volatile global prices, making Australians vulnerable to price shocks from global circumstances beyond our control.
“As a matter of urgency, the newly sworn in Minister for Climate & Energy should examine options to curtail gas exports to safeguard a sufficient affordable gas supply for Australians in the short term.
“In the medium term, this Government should look to do everything possible to speed up electrification, helping households get off expensive gas. This would not only save households from skyrocketing energy bills, but free up gas resources for industries that will take longer to transition.
“The only long-term solution to expensive fossil fuels is to get off them and that requires political leadership.”
