Chris Bowen rejects nuclear energy bid as ‘utter fantasy’

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says Australia has such abundant access to renewable energy sources that it would be ‘utter fantasy’ to join AUKUS allies in embracing nuclear power.

Chris Bowen says Australia will not be joining allies in embracing nuclear energy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says Australia has such abundant access to renewable energy ­sources that it would be “utter fantasy” to join AUKUS allies in embracing nuclear power.

Speaking after a meeting of state and federal energy ministers in Perth on Friday, Mr Bowen denied that Australia would be a pariah at next month’s UN climate change conference as the Albanese government rules out lifting a ban on the zero emissions energy source.

The Australian on Friday revealed that the US and Britain were leading a push for nations at the COP28 summit to agree to ­triple the amount of installed ­nuclear capacity by 2050.

Mr Bowen on Friday said other nations’ energy ministers were not asking Australia to support nuclear, despite it being backed by G7 nations as a way to bring down global emissions.

“When I talk to my inter­national counterparts … many of them say to me, ‘Oh geez, if I had your renewables I wouldn’t be doing nuclear’,” he said.

While US climate envoy John Kerry has said nuclear was “100 per cent part of the solution” for climate change, Mr Bowen said Australia’s abundant renewables meant nuclear here was not feasible. “We respect that some countries are going down that road – every country has a different path to net zero.

“With our abundant renew­ables, nuclear power is an utter fantasy,” he said.

Friday’s meeting of energy ministers involved discussion around the Albanese gov­ernment’s freshly announced ­Capacity Investment Scheme, a five-fold expansion in Labor’s plan to underwrite renewables projects.

The 43 per cent target by 2030 emissions target that Anthony Albanese took to the last election, which included the assumption that renewables would provide 82 per cent of Australia’s electricity by the end of the decade, was based on modelling around Labor’s policies at that time.

Asked if the new Capacity Investment Scheme was evidence that the initial modelling was wrong, Mr Bowen said the government was responding to changed circumstances.

“When circumstances change, you update your policies. And when we’re faced with a global race for capital, and a global race for supply chain, we make sure Australia is as welcoming an environment as possible for renewable energy investment,” Mr Bowen said.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable has urged the government to embrace nuclear power as an option that could help the nation meet its climate targets ahead of the upcoming UN climate change conference in Dubai.

She said the government should back the push to triple the amount of installed nuclear power capacity across the globe by 2050.

“It is now abundantly clear the world’s leading nations are ramping up their nuclear energy capabilities and ambition,” she told The Weekend Australian.

“We welcome this leadership of US President (Joe) Biden and UK Prime Minister (Rishi) Sunak, and we urge the federal government to support the COP climate conference initiative on nuclear energy.”

Cristina Talacko, chief executive of the Coalition for Conservation, said it was time for Australia to lift its prohibition on nuclear power; she rejected arguments from Mr Bowen that the technology was not a viable economic option for Australia.