Cook used his keynote speech at the summit to wax lyrical about his government’s commitment to decarbonisation and support for establishing new clean energy and technology industries in WA.
Premier Roger Cook speaking at the Energy Transition Summit.Hamish Hastie
As a small group of school strike for climate protestors gathered in the Perth CBD to urge governments to reduce their support for fossil fuels Cook was reaffirming it to the hundreds of guests inside the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
He said gas was a transition fuel that would continue to be sold to Asian nations to divert them away from coal and used in the grid WA until at least the 2040s as the state increasingly used renewable technology.
Cook said WA needed to be at the forefront of decarbonisation.
“This isn’t about our children,it’s about our children’s children. We don’t have a choice about this,” he said.
“We’re up to our guts in the decarbonisation story of Western Australia but,as I said,it’s a challenge but it’s an extraordinary opportunity.”
Cook announced $160 million in lease incentives for clean energy and technology companies to set up shop in WA,on top of more than $700 million to be spent in electricity grid upgrades in the south-west of the state to deal with increased renewable projects.
The state will provide free rent for companies to establish bases in WA’s strategic industrial areas of Anketell,Boodarie,Maitland,Mungari,Oakajee and Shotts.
Projects must be worth more than $1 billion to be eligible and a final investment decision must be made by June 30,2028.
“Our Asian partners can’t decarbonise without us,and we shouldn’t decarbonise without them.”
WA Premier Roger Cook
Cook said the sweetener could attract projects including green steel plants and battery manufacturing.
“The initiative will cost the government up to $162 million in foregone revenue,but we recognise the economic benefit of these multibillion-dollar projects is far more than that,” he said.
“The doors of economic opportunity are ajar.”
Cook reiterated his recent comments on the government’s continued support for the gas sector,and said coal was the real enemy of decarbonisation.
“Our Asian partners can’t decarbonise without us,and we shouldn’t decarbonise without them. So we’re going to important role to play in assisting them to decarbonise our economy,” he said.
“It’s no use ... wrapping ourselves in a cloak of self-satisfaction as we decarbonise ourselves when in Singapore,Japan,Korea and Indonesia,they still rely upon coal to supply the energy to them.
“Coal is really the enemy in relation to our early gains around decarbonisation,gas has been responsible is the single biggest element in the decarbonisation of the globe.”
The premier also backed the emerging technology of carbon capture and storage in fossil fuel projects as a way to mitigate emissions.
Chevron’s Gorgon project in WA’s north-west is home to the biggest carbon capture and storage project in the world,.
Cook said that result was “better than nothing”.
“Let’s do what we can to make sure that,to the extent that we can,utilise that great technology,” he said.
Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen also threw his government;s support behind the technology but said it had to work.
“My approach to carbon capture use and storage is entirely pragmatic and practical. It needs to work and it’s a complement to other emissions reduction strategies,” he said.
Bowen and WA Energy Minister Bill Johnston also announced a $19.9 million program to support solar uptake for 2000 regional houses in WA.
The money will be spent on expanding the WA government’s Kimberley Communities Solar Saver program to install rooftop solar on about 400 homes.
It will also boost funding for the Sunshine Saver Program which will help connect a further 1600 regional homes to centralised solar farms.
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