Matt Canavan urges climate compo for coal plant

Matt Canavan wants a guarantee of compo to the owner of a planned new coal-fired power station if there’s a change in ­climate policy.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan. Picture: AAP

Nationals senator Matt Canavan is urging the Morrison government to guarantee compensation to the owner of a proposed new coal-fired power station should there be any change in federal ­climate policy.

The former resources minister said Shine Energy’s proposed coal plant in central Queensland needed protections around any future policies that would be more ambitious than the Coalition’s 26 per cent emissions reduction target.

Senator Canavan’s call is likely to be strongly opposed by Liberal MPs in inner Sydney and Melbourne, whose electorates are anti-coal. However, the senator rejected Shine Energy chief executive Ashley Dodd’s call for the company to be exempt from the Paris Agreement.

“Shine won’t be exempt from the Paris Agreement but we should look at ways to indemnify against carbon risk,” Senator ­Canavan said.

“There does need to be a mechanism in place to encourage large energy investment that provides protection against changes to carbon­ policies over the lifespan of the asset.

“If someone is going to invest billions of dollars in a large energy investment — coal, gas et cetera — they need protection from a crazy Labor/Greens government from ever getting elected.

“They can’t mitigate that risk because it is a sovereign risk and the only people that can mitigate that is the sovereign.”

On Friday, Energy Minister Angus Taylor approved $3.3m in funding for a feasibility study into a proposed high-efficiency, low-emissions plant in the central Queensland town of Collinsville.

The Australian this month published a series of leaked emails between Mr Dodd and figures in the Morrison government.

Mr Dodd told the government his company should be exempt from complying with the Paris Agreement because ­indigenous owners who control the business never agreed to the climate pact.

“We as a sovereign people and nation have never been consulted by the parties involved in the Paris Climate Agreement,” Mr Dodd wrote in an email to Mr Taylor’s office.

“Therefore Shine Energy, as a Birriah traditional owner company­ of the Birriah nation, is not subject and/or obligated to comply with this agreement.

“And to any counter-argument that we are subject and/or obligated to comply with the Paris Clim­ate Agreement, then the onus of proof must be brought forward by the parties which argue that Shine Energy must comply with the Paris Climate Agreement.”

Opposition energy spokesman Mark Butler said the Paris Agreement was a “fundamental policy”.

“If Scott Morrison was serious about action on climate change he would take the advice of scientists, the international community, ­experts, industry and business who have called for a target of net-zero emissions by 2050,” Mr Butler said.