Helping coal clean up key to zero emissions target

Scott Morrison, top, and Barnaby Joyce need to work together to get the National Party on board. Picture: AAP

Late last month I wrote a hypothetical that Scott Morrison would go to Glasgow with a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. And that after the G20 trade meeting in Italy (happening now), Trade Minister Simon Birmingham would go to London and sign the Australia UK free trade agreement.

We are on track. Momentum is building for the Prime Minister to go to Glasgow.

I also called for the media to present a united front to support the PM, given most of the country is sick of being a laggard on climate. Sure there are a few voices ideologically opposed to energy transition at pace. But for the rest, that means not wedging the PM and key Nationals like Bridget McKenzie ahead of the crucial meeting of the National Party room on Sunday, tempting as it might be.

As Prince Charles said this week (when he was pinned by one of these wedgers from the BBC) COP26 is the last chance saloon to fix things.

In a flash of serendipity for Morrison, Barnaby Joyce as Nationals leader is the kingmaker in talks within his party and having to balance big business, the NFF and progressive Nats with anti-net zero MPs in Queensland. If he were not leader, he would very likely be sitting back in Tamworth and backing Matt Canavan to the hilt.

We don’t know what is on offer to help Joyce win over his party room, but a little clarity is helpful.

Nationals like Canavan and George Christiansen represent electorates where coal mining and associated infrastructure including rail underpin jobs.

News that Australian coal fired power stations will be phased out faster than expected is not new. The Energy Security Board’s Kerry Schott has been saying this for some time. But the industry that will go on is in coal exports which have incidentally been filling government coffers, offsetting the fall in iron ore, as thermal coal hits record prices.

Whatever else is on the table to get the Nationals over the line, the government needs to direct more funding to clean up coal.

ESG pressure on companies and their financiers mean private sector funding of technology like CCS is getting harder. The carping around Chevron as it pioneers CCS at scale in Australia on the Gorgon project is frankly short sighted.

This is where the government should be jumping in. At the moment, its Clean Energy Finance Corporation cannot invest in CCS because the Labor government which set it up banned investment in coal or nuclear technology. Its renewable energy agency ARENA also has difficulty.

There needs to be another way for the government to lean in to help the sector clean up coal.

Those dissing the progress of CCS should look at the challenges of hydrogen, which while brilliant when it arrives, is equally challenging to deliver at scale. The difference is that we know billions of dollars will be thrown at hydrogen over the next few years from both the private sector and governments.

Yes, as Bob Gottliebsen points out on Tuesday, Joyce has NSW onside and should just get on with thing, but federally talks are different because of the key Queensland seats at risk.