Climate roadmap for our pragmatic Prime Minister

Technology and innovation have always been the best answer to meeting the challenge of lifting global economic prosperity while safeguarding the biodiversity of a shared planet. Australia’s first response to the emergence of climate change as a major issue was to join with the US and other developed nations to invest in research and development of solutions. Another consistent theme has been for Australia to measure its progress against that of the rest of the world. These sentiments were articulated by prime ministers Paul Keating and John Howard before climate change action fell hostage to political division and claimed a string of leaders: Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

There is plenty of politics still left in the climate debate, but in recent days Scott Morrison has begun to lay out a pragmatic route he no doubt hopes will lead his government all the way to victory at the next election. The Labor opposition is attempting to change tack but is still offering a mixed message, stranded between the demands of its traditional blue-collar base and those of voters in its inner-city seats. On the green fringe, there will always be those who see every bushfire as evidence of a climate emergency, just as MPs from coal-producing regions rightly will continue to argue forcefully for an industry that creates jobs and a big portion of the nation’s export earnings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new dimension to the conversation on energy, employment and sustainability. The technology roadmap being outlined on Tuesday is an opportunity to build on the Morrison government’s focus on “things that work” and that can be done. Announcing the development of the technology roadmap, federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said the goal was to bring a strategic and system-wide view to future investments in low-emissions technologies. With a slogan of “technology, not taxes”, Mr Taylor said it was an approach based on rigour, discipline and optimism, not ideology. Part of the discipline was in being prepared to drop schemes that lost promise and to leave deployment of technologies that had reached commercial viability to the private sector.

Stretch goals in the roadmap include getting hydrogen production to less than $2 a kilogram and commercialisation of carbon capture and storage to enable low-emissions heavy industry and prolong the use of fossil fuels. Biological sequestration in soil carbon and elsewhere represents a massive untapped potential new industry for Australian farmers while firmed renewables and long-duration energy storage are the much-needed technologies to sustain the existing rush to deploy solar and wind.

The roadmap is certain to face objections from special interests that favour one technology over another. The government must resist any attempt to pick winners, just as it should avoid making politics the central issue of its climate change response. The pandemic provides an opportunity for all sides to come closer together. The reality is that every state government now has a policy of zero emissions by 2050. The Prime Minister says Australia almost certainly will be emissions neutral by 2050 but the official target remains the Paris Agreement pledge to cut emissions by 26 per cent to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change target date to become carbon neutral remains the second half of the 21st century.

On present indications it is business that increasingly will take the lead, with public and investor pressure forcing directors to put much greater emphasis on sustainability goals. Business, in turn, is united about the need for greater policy clarity from government. Mindful of the heavy political blood already spilled on the altar of climate change policy, there is an opportunity for a pragmatic, right-leaning prime minister such as Mr Morrison to cut through. Setting a framework, as the government has sought to do in recent days, is important. Policies should encourage R&D of new technologies without offering ongoing and unsustainable subsidies. Solutions that work will speak for themselves in the marketplace. The disastrous rollout of the National Broadband Network is a clear example of how locking into old technologies through government mandate comes with a heavy price tag for taxpayers and consumers.

The Australian has always identified investment in R&D as critical to success in reducing global carbon dioxide emissions while preserving living standards and safeguarding nature, just as we have supported mechanisms that put a market price on carbon in a way that rewards innovation. Our other benchmarks have been to limit subsidies, to call out rent seekers and to resist the urge by government to pick winners. We are in favour of renewables, just as we believe there can be a global future for coal done well with carbon capture and storage, and we support the use of gas with infrastructure that one day may be used by a thriving hydrogen industry. We want battery technology to continue to develop and we want a government flexible enough to adopt new advances as they appear that will provide the best outcome for the economy, the environment and the nation.