Green List gives clear sight into future of innovation

A takeover bid for AGL Energy that aims to quicken the nation’s exit from coal-fired power is a timely insight into the big names and deep pockets behind the drive to go green. As our Green List magazine, published on Friday, shows, the green transition from “good life” dreaming to top-end-of-town opportunity is all but complete. But with trillions of dollars potentially in play, politicians must guard against greenwash and stand firmly on the side of taxpayers and consumers.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has been a controversial figure for many seeking to profit from going green. But in a Green List interview, he gives further insight into how he believes it is the proven pathway of competition and innovation that will deliver results. Mr Taylor says it isn’t acceptable to pursue emissions reduction policies that add substantially to the cost of living. In short, he says addressing climate change should never be the plaything of those who can most afford it at the expense of those who cannot.

The stakes are huge, with the Commonwealth Bank estimating the cost of Australia’s net-zero emissions transition will mirror that of the last great resources boom. Investment will peak at about 28 per cent of gross domestic product around 2030. On Westpac’s reckoning, the cost of retiring coal-fired power generation in Australia in the next decade will be about $100bn. An additional $50bn will be needed for infrastructure to move the electricity around. The challenge is to ensure, as with other industrial revolutions, the benefits will come from making things cheaper, not more expensive, and improving productivity and choice. Given the speed of the transition, vigilance is needed to ensure that projects are as green as they are cracked up to be. This includes the potential for difficult to deal with waste as projects and panels reach the end of their useful life. ANZ Bank institutional group executive Mark Whelan warns a mismatch between supply of suitable projects and pool of funds already available raises the risk of bad actors seeking an undeserved role in the decarbonisation supercycle. Greenwashing, where promoters burnish the green credentials of dubious projects, is already a problem.

Going green is not only about power. The Green List includes pioneers in regenerative agriculture and land management as well as the financial brains working out how to push capital towards projects on the ground. Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is only part of the green story. Finding ways to fund biodiversity preservation properly and reward the protection and improvement of natural systems is the next big challenge. A new breed of farmers argues there are five billion hectares of farmland that could sequester 80 billion tonnes of carbon a year, the equivalent of 300 gigatonnes of CO2 or six years of global emissions. But natural capital in agriculture is more than just soil. Macdoch Foundation chief executive Michelle Gortan explains it includes remnant native vegetation, productive pasturelands and croplands, water resources, agroforestry, environmental plantings and animals, all of which make critical contributions to production, people and the planet.

The growth of solar energy, a technology largely pioneered in Australia, is proof of the power of innovation. The same forces are now at work across a range of new technologies. New types of battery are needed to enable existing renewable energy technologies to work at scale and to drive the envisaged transition to electric vehicles. The Green List explains how electric-car makers are betting big on alternatives to lithium ion batteries with solid-state batteries. They say this technology eventually will make it possible to drive as far as 1000km on a single charge, with the charge time to replenish a fully depleted battery about 10 minutes.

Pioneering work also is being done on ways to capture carbon dioxide emissions and reuse them or lock them away. Success here is vital to reducing CO2 emissions from areas such as cement and steelmaking. Meanwhile, a target set by government to achieve a step change down in the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable energy has spawned a race to dominate a potential future industry that could rival today’s coal and gas exports.

Alongside the business titans wanting to rule the new world of energy are men such as central Arnhem Land-born Dean Yibarbuk, who has been a driving force in Indigenous land management and conservation in northern Australia for more than 35 years. James Schultz has built a small carbon project developer, GreenCollar, into a global powerhouse with the backing of private equity giant KKR and Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The Green List celebrates achievements being made in developing new ways to do things better. Like Mr Taylor, we believe the private sector will always be best suited to find the solutions that society demands. If the solutions deliver results, improve the lives of citizens and are cheaper than alternatives they will thrive.

Going green is a golden opportunity but it should not be a matter of government policy requiring public subsidy. Today’s green leaders have a heavy responsibility to make it work for everyone.