Greens’ anti-gas plan would sabotage energy security

The world is sending a clear message that energy security is the priority concern. This is something we as a nation must absorb rather than assume that things will always take care of themselves if only we maintain a good heart on climate change. The latest data from the International Energy Agency that fossil fuel use continues to rise, despite repeated predictions it will peak, provides a reality check. The IEA says that in 2024 and 2025 the world’s electricity demand is set to grow at the fastest pace since its post-Covid rebound. Despite the rapid growth of renewables, the brisk increase in electricity consumption, especially in China and India, is resulting in the use of more coal-fired generation to meet demand. Global CO2 emissions from electricity generation are set stay high through 2025. China is adding electricity demand equivalent to the entire consumption of Germany each year. India, the fastest growing major economy in the world, is forecast to post an increase of 8 per cent this year. Electricity demand in the US is set to rebound significantly in 2024 with the addition of energy-hungry artificial intelligence adding to the challenge.

The latest IEA report follows confirmation this week that the much-touted hydrogen revolution is proving to be more difficult than promised. Former chief scientist Alan Finkel, an early booster for hydrogen, has changed his mind. He has said it is increasingly clear that green hydrogen is too expensive and that the main role for green hydrogen production in Australia will be as a feedstock to make green iron, green alumina, green ammonia, green fertiliser, green jet fuels and renewable diesel. This helps to explain the decision by Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest to abandon his plan to dominate the global green hydrogen export business. While continued research is valuable, government must resist new calls for subsidy payments for hydrogen production to be made even more generous to support an industry that does not make economic sense.

Instead, it must urgently secure an alternative pathway for energy security that does not rely on hydrogen to replace fossil fuels to back up the electricity grid when coal-fired power stations retire. The latest plan for electric vehicle owners to send their electricity back to the grid in times of demand is not the solution if Australia is to maintain its position as a developed industrial economy.

This is why the plans put forward by Greens leader Adam Bandt to strangle the domestic gas industry is an act of economic sabotage. The Greens’ plan is to increase sovereign risk and quash the industry that provides energy backup and export income while boosting government give-aways for further market intervention. Mr Bandt says the Greens would focus the party’s climate attack against Labor at the next election heavily around gas. This is happening at a time when there appears to be a belated recognition by Labor that gas will be central to Australia’s future energy needs. New powers to divert gas from export contracts, as the Greens propose, will undermine our standing as a reliable trading partner, weaken security and increase emissions in other parts of the world, and encourage energy companies to look elsewhere for future developments.

It is further proof, as our series of reports on the Greens’ transformation from a party based on environmental protection to one concerned with deep left foreign and domestic policy has shown, that the Greens are a danger to national identity, political stability and prosperity. Energy security is too important to be squandered on ideological frolics and wishful thinking.