The dirty business of new energy

The use of slave labour and exploitation of minority groups and children to make windmills, solar panels and batteries is a longstanding inconvenient truth for the climate intelligentsia. More inconvenient still is being caught red-handed taking money and being photographed alongside companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s forced labour camps. But solar panels have to come from somewhere, and Australia’s Smart Energy Council, it seems, has been there to play along. As we report on Wednesday, the SEC has received thousands of dollars from clean-energy firms black-listed in the US over concerns they use slave labour. A number of the SEC’s sponsors and conference exhibitors have been embroiled in allegations involving “the oppression of minority groups”, including Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang region.

SEC personnel and outspoken renewable energy enthusiast Simon Holmes a Court appear in photos posted by one accused firm. The SEC takes money in exchange for “insiders’ communication” and access to Australia’s parliament. It describes itself as “the independent body for the Australian smart energy industry”, “a vital voice for renewables” that brings “a proactive, hands-on approach”. Included on the board are its president, former Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry, and Oliver Yates, the inaugural Clean Energy Finance Corporation CEO and a one-time independent candidate against Josh Frydenberg.

The charity group lists its 2023 achievements as having launched a “#SuperProfitsTax campaign” to counter the gas industry’s influence; overseen the “demise of the Energy Security Board and #CoalKeeper”; “made an extensive submission to the Fuel Efficiency Standards and backed it up with a strong media campaign”; and “helped develop Chris Bowen’s Capacity Investment Scheme which excluded gas”.

The SEC says it provides “tailored solutions and practical help” to meet the individual needs of member companies. These would include companies such as Jinko Solar, which has been raided by the US Department of Homeland Security after having some of its shipments seized under the Uighur Forced Labor Protection Act. SEC “gold partner” JA solar also has been exposed as having “high exposure” to forced labour. A 2024 Horizon Advisory report said JA Solar had an influential position in the Chinese political and party landscape.

Despite holding charitable donation status, the SEC has been a financial supporter of Labor, and outwardly partisan in its public behaviour. The group is responsible for putting into the public domain the claim that “the Coalition’s nuclear policies could cost $600bn”. SEC chief executive John Grimes said: “This is a $600bn nuclear tax bill for Australian households during a cost-of-living crisis.”

The SEC says it rejects slavery. But with China the world’s dominant supplier of renewable energy hardware, this is something that requires close attention. It certainly is an inconvenient truth for Mr Holmes a Court, who has helped to bankroll the teals political movement that shares a common ideology of investing in renewable energy and championing better political ethics. After one term in federal parliament, the scorecard of achievement for the teals is slim but the catalogue of less-than-exemplary behaviour is not. Hypocrisy is all too common in modern politics, but being aligned with fashionable ideas such as renewable energy is never an excuse to turn a blind eye to slavery or to use charitable donation status to raise funds that can be spent for party-political ends.