Piers Akerman: Few European nation’s would accept Albanese’s energy policies

Anthony Albanese claims he has recveived a warm reception in Europe because of his lunatic climate change policies, but those cheering him rely on nuclear and are also resurrecting coal power plants.

Memo to Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen: Return from energy fantasy land and face the facts.

While our globetrotting Prime Minister claims he has received a warmer reception in Europe because of his lunatic climate change policies, he needs reminding that among those cheering him, Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands are currently resurrecting old coal power plants and mines to keep their lights on.

His latest host, French President Emmanuel Macron, is smug in the knowledge that his country derives more than 70 per cent of its electricity from safe, reliable nuclear energy because its longstanding policy is based on energy security.

Just five months ago, Macron announced plans to build six new reactors with a further eight under consideration.

Nuclear energy has been a nice little earner for France, the world’s largest net exporter of electricity due to its very low cost of generation, bringing in more than €3bn annually (more than $A4.5bn).

Anthony Albanese says he has received a warm response in Europe due to his climate policies. Picture: Emmanuel Dunand

You can bet Albanese didn’t ask too many questions of his host about France’s secure and reliable energy source or its welcome revenues. Nor did he chide those nations busily digging up coal and cranking up their coal-fired power plants on their reversal of climate change policy.

He was too busy counting the bouquets being tossed in his path by fellow progressives.

The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental agency established under the OECD in 1974 after the 1973 global oil crisis, strongly endorsed nuclear power in a report released on Thursday.

The momentum for nuclear to lower emissions is building in many countries amid soaring fuel prices and growing energy security concerns, the IEA said.

Relying on renewable energy will be ‘‘harder, riskier and more expensive without nuclear”.

“Nuclear power has the potential to play a significant role in helping countries to securely transition to energy systems dominated by renewables,” the IEA said. ‘‘In countries that choose to continue or increase their use of nuclear power, it can reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels, cut carbon dioxide emissions and enable electricity systems to integrate higher shares of solar and wind power.’’

Nuclear is the second-largest source of low-emissions power after hydropower, with nuclear plants in 32 countries, the report said.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol said that in the context of the global energy crisis, skyrocketing fossil fuel prices, energy security challenges and ambitious climate commitments, he believed nuclear power had a unique opportunity to stage a comeback.

As for Bowen, his performance at the National Press Club on Wednesday just demonstrated that he actually doesn’t know how little he knows about his energy portfolio or he would not be placing it behind his climate change brief. Having earlier dismissed nuclear energy as a ‘‘complete joke’’ he again poo-pooed any interest in nuclear playing a role in the country’s energy mix.

Nuclear energy plays and important role in France’s energy supply. Picture: Fred Dufour/AFP

When in opposition, Labor regularly claimed Australia was out of step with the rest of the world as it endorsed hard-left climate policy. It is now Australia that is out of step – and disastrously so.

The Australian Energy Market Operator published its 2022 integrated system plan (ISP) on Thursday, outlining a 30-year road map for supplying “affordable and reliable electricity” to the national market while also achieving net zero by 2050. The report, released by green-hued AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman, said there needed to be a nine-fold increase in grid-scale wind and solar capacity, triple the firming capacity (dispatchable storage, hydro and gas-fired generation), and a near five-fold increase in distributed solar to provide “valuable insurance” against coal-fired power stations closing faster than expected.

What a joke. Treasury has yet to provide an accurate five-year forecast and this bunch of bureaucrats can predict how much wind and cloud cover will provide unreliable renewable energy with certainty out to 2052?

With quarterly power bills going out in the past week, Australians should be able to see that the expert regulators have failed in their task, and that they’ve failed because successive governments have folded before green hysteria and switched reliance from coal and gas to unreliable and extremely expensive renewable energy sources.

The reality is Albanese and Bowen backed the wrong horse but we are the poorer for it.