Community consultation and effective engagement,including with landholders,communities near developments and First Nations peoples must be central to planning and approvals for the rollout of clean,cheap renewable energy. No one is denying this,least of all the government.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has accepted in principle the recommendations of the Energy Infrastructure Commissioner’sreview into community engagement on renewable energy projects,including improved consultation processes,a developer rating system to underpin community confidence,and better handling of complaints. Equally,the renewables transition must not come at unnecessary expense of natural places,biodiversity and native species,and environmental protection must be top of mind.
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But so should pivoting policy momentum and public capital to our massive,once-in-a-century opportunity to establish Australia as a renewable energy and zero-emissions trade and investment superpower,building new models of community benefit-sharing and unlocking huge new investments to revitalise our regions in the process.
The world is rapidly decarbonising. China put on nearly300 gigawatts of renewables last year,five times the total capacity of the east Australian national energy market,including renewable and nonrenewable sources. The$US1 trillion Inflation Reduction Act – dubbed the “green new deal” – is turbocharging the energy transition and industrialisation in the US,as are comparable policy and public investment programs the world over.
The world’s progress spells inevitable terminal long-term decline for coal and gas – and trouble for a global,top-three coal,gas and oil export petro-state such as Australia,which shares that dubious honour with Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Yet all we are getting from the fossils in the Coalition and its political allies is Climate Wars 2.0,a concerted campaign opposing the clean energy transition we need to tackle the climate crisis and bring low- or no-cost,zero-emissions power to all Australians.