Australia is out of step with the world and we’re paying the price with our power bills | Caleb Bond

People say they care about climate change – but they care about cost of living even more, writes Caleb Bond.

While our allies quietly walk back their green policies, Australia is going full steam ahead.

South Australia’s net zero target for energy production was this week brought forward from 2030 to 2027.

Premier Peter Malinauskas says this is possible thanks to increased investment in renewable and hydrogen power.

I’m sure that’s of great comfort to anyone who has received an ever-increasing power bill recently.

AGL jacked up its variable prices 29.8 per cent last July, an average of $565 – and the biggest increase in the country.

The state government says SA generates 70 per cent of its energy from renewable sources.

SA also, would you believe it, has the most expensive electricity in the country.

Premier Peter Malinauskas at Olympic Dam on Monday. Picture: Ben Clark

An Energy Consumers Australia report last year found the average South Australian business was paying $2650 a year more for electricity than one in Victoria.

And yet we’re continually told renewable energy is the cheapest form of power available. Houston, we have a problem.

There is no justification for making net zero targets even more ambitious, even if you are investing more money in renewables.

The difference between 2027 and 2030 in terms of what it might do for the environment is negligible.

But the difference it could make to your power bills is significant.

People say they care about climate change – but they care about cost of living even more. There’s no point addressing the climate if you can’t afford to live in the world you’re supposedly trying to save.

Look at the Albanese government’s car emission targets which, according to the industry, will increase the cost of a ute – the most popular vehicles in the country – by thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, the US is now planning to significantly relax its push for two-thirds of new cars to be electric by 2032 because they recognise it is impossible and will only drive up prices.

The UK last year pushed back its electric car target by five years.

Climate Change and rnergy minister Chris Bowen during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

But not here. We’re going full steam ahead.

Just as we refuse to entertain nuclear energy while the rest of the world ramps it up.

At the global climate change gasbagging show, Cop28, held in December, a slew of countries – including our allies in the US, UK, France, Canada and Japan – pledged to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050 as a major plank of reaching net zero.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen instead described nuclear energy as “a pipe dream wrapped in a fantasy accompanied by an illusion”.

Australia is completely out of step with the rest of the world and we are all paying for it. We are signing one long, stupid suicide note.

And just to top it all off, data revealed this week shows NSW coal exports to China last year exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

We couldn’t possibly burn the coal here to create cheap energy because that would be bad for the climate – but burning it in China clearly doesn’t hurt the planet.

Could it get more absurd?