Cash splash for high emitters to go greener

The NSW government has announced a $750m plan to reduce carbon emissions and invest in clean technologies.

NSW Minister for Energy and Environment Matt Kean. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

The NSW government has announced a $750m plan to reduce carbon emissions and invest in clean technologies, in a further challenge by Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean to the Morrison government’s refusal to commit to a 2050 deadline for net-zero emissions.

Mr Kean boasted that NSW was “leading the way in the race towards net-zero emissions” with the plan, which will provide $380m to support existing industries to retool with low emissions alternatives and $175m to set up low-carbon industries such as green hydrogen. A further $195m will be allocated to research to develop new clean technologies.

Announcing his Net Zero Industry and Innovation Program, Mr Kean again committed NSW to an agenda to reduce emissions by 35 per cent by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.

“In order to reach those targets, it is critical that clean technologies are developed, innovative new industries are encouraged, and existing industrial centres are supported in becoming clean manufacturing precincts,” he said.

Mr Kean, a leader of the NSW moderate faction, has previously criticised Scott Morrison’s refusal to commit to net-zero carbon emission by 2050 as “ridiculous”.

The Prime Minister has said he wanted to see the target achieved “as soon as possible” and preferably by 2050, but was focused on emissions-reducing technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.

Mr Kean has been savaged by federal Coalition MPs for his pro-renewables policies in NSW, but he makes it clear with this new program he is not taking a backward step in his confrontation with federal colleagues.

His plan pointedly notes that Australia’s three biggest trading partners, China, Japan and South Korea, have all committed to net-zero emissions.

“NSW was one of the first jurisdictions in the world to set a net-zero objective, but we must get there in a way that grows the economy, makes our businesses and industry more competitive and puts us ahead of the pack in the low-carbon global economy,” Mr Kean said.

He pointed to a November 2020 report by Deloitte Access Economics that estimated NSW could experience a 2 per cent increase in gross state product and 50,000 new jobs by 2070 “with a strategic plan in place”.

“Almost 30 per cent of our state’s carbon emissions are created by our top 55 industrial facilities, which are critical contrib­utors to the NSW economy,” Mr Kean noted.

Funding will be allocated to ­existing high-emitting facilities to undertake major capital upgrades of plant and equipment.

This “voluntary initiative” would be open to NSW high-emitting manufacturing and mining facilities that have a threshold emission greater than 0.09 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per annum.

A priority will be the commercialisation of low-emission technologies in industries where they do not yet exist.

At least $50m will be invested “before 2030” to develop the green hydrogen sector. Hydrogen hubs would be created in port locations like Newcastle and Port Kembla. The report cites “an example scenario” of the government committing to 100 fuel cell electric buses in two hub locations to stimulate initial demand at scale for a clean hydrogen supply.

“There are great opportunities for NSW to … become a major global player in the production and export of low and zero carbon industrial products,” the report says.

The NSW opposition queried from where the bulk of funding for the program was coming.