AGL in March brought forward the closure of its Bayswater coal plant in NSW from 2035 to 2033,while Loy Yang A in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley would have its 2048 closure date brought forward to 2045. However,the announcement disappointed climate campaigners including Cannon-Brookes,who have been urging the company to align its closure dates with the United Nations’ calls for developed countries to quit coal-fired electricity by 2030 to avert catastrophic levels of climate change.
AGL chief executive Graeme Hunt on Thursday accused Cannon-Brookes of making false “claims” about AGL’s proposed demerged power station offshoot,to be known as Accel Energy,and stressed the company was open to faster coal closure dates if market conditions allowed.
“These revised closure dates are not the end of the story,” he told a Macquarie Australia conference.
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“Accel will continue to challenge those closure dates and look to see how they can improve on this should the system be able to accommodate this in an orderly and responsible way.”
AGL’s coal- and gas-fired power stations are the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia,accounting for 8 per cent of the nation’s carbon footprint. The company has resisted calls to exit coal by 2030,warning the shift from fossil fuel-based power generation to more weather-dependent renewable energy risked destabilising the market at times when it is not sunny or windy,and drive up consumers’ energy bills.
In a letter addressed to the board and circulated among shareholders,Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures described the demerger as “irresponsible” because it would entrench a position inconsistent with limiting climate change.