The incoming Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean has issued a call to arms for the clean energy industry to “enter the arena” and push back against vested interests seeking to erode public confidence in renewable energy.
Kean, a former energy minister in New South Wales and Liberal MP for another three weeks, told the Australian Clean Energy Summit 2024 in Sydney the industry had the science and the financial heft to counter the “propaganda” of vested fossil fuel interests.
“Those whose interest is maintaining the status quo and their own super profits and self-interest at the expense of Australian families and the national interest are hard at work undermining the transition,” Kean told the event in his first major speech since being appointed authority head by the Albanese government last month.
“While many here remain silent and hopeful, they are loud and determined,” Kean said, according to a copy of speech. “It is time for many of you in this room to put your mouth where your money is.”
“The facts, the benefits, and the positive outcomes are on your side,” he said. “It’s time for you to enter the debate and argue for Australia.”
Approval and construction delays have slowed the development and connection of large-scale wind and solar plants and the transmission lines needed to supply the low-cost energy to customers. Costs also increased in the process.
The Australian Energy Market Operator used last month’s launch of its biennial blueprint to warn the pace of renewables must double the present pace to 6GW a year to meet decarbonisation goals and fill the gap as ageing coal plants shut.
Kean’s comments echoed those of Kane Thornton, the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, which organised the event. Thornton opened Tuesday’s gathering by warning of “bad faith actors”.
These were using “a weakened media [to prey] on communities increasingly anxious about the uncertainty and tensions in the world around us to tear things down”, Thornton said. Those with fossil fuel interests were “stepping up to tell their story and peppering it with myths, truths, and outright disinformation” to stall renewables.
“The battering ram, of course, is nuclear power,” Thornton said, referring to the federal opposition’s pledge to introduce seven nuclear plants after the mid-2030s.
Kean, who will take up the authority role on 5 August, did not mention nuclear energy. Asked about the energy source at a media conference in Canberra to mark his appointment last month, Kean said the advice given to him as NSW energy minister was that nuclear energy would be too expensive and take too long to build.
“I didn’t want to bankrupt the state.’ he said at the time. “And I didn’t want to put those huge costs on to families.”
In Tuesday’s speech, Kean said Australia should learn from Europe’s efforts to accelerate renewables to wean the region off oil and gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It reinforced the need to replace unreliable coal-power power stations and a dependence on foreign energy sources,” he said. “[Approvals were] now simpler, faster and more cost effective – and reflect the broader strategic interests involved in combating climate change.”
“Too many projects are being forced to run a tortuous path to approval, bouncing between federal and state and sometimes local approval regimes … dragging on for years, when time is of the essence,” Kean said.
Governments should work towards “a new set of guiding principles” to ensure policymakers and regulators had “a laser-like focus on what can be done to approve projects, rather than the fine print that can be used to stop them,” he said.
“The urgent need for the delivery of new, clean energy supply should serve as a call to arms.”
