Renewables-only strategy scepticsputting lives at risk, says Greens leader Adam Bandt
Adam Bandt has lashed the food distributors of Australia for questioning Labor’s renewables-only strategy and claimed they are ‘putting Australian lives at threat’.
Adam Bandt has lashed the food distributors of Australia for questioning Labor’s renewable energy strategy and claimed they are “putting Australian lives at threat by backing more coal and gas”, as teal MP Zoe Daniel argues concerned businesses should put solar panels on their roofs as a solution to dealing with skyrocketing energy costs.
Employers supplying food to the nation’s supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and pubs this week launched a revolt against the government’s 82 per cent renewables target, calling for a recalibration of the climate change agenda that catered for more coal and gas production to help bring down energy costs that had risen by more than 50 per cent since Labor took power.
Food Distributors Australia support renewables but believe coal fired power stations must be managed efficently to provide base load power in the short term and that the nation needs to open up gas reserves to ensure Australia has power into the future.
But the Greens leader brushed away the concerns from food distributors, describing their calls for the 2030 renewables target to be reconsidered as “astounding” and dangerous.
“Right now around Australia, there are people whose homes are being destroyed and who are in fear for their lives because of climate change-fuelled extreme weather events (such as) fires and floods that are fuelled by coal and gas,” Mr Bandt said.
“It is utterly astounding that at the same time as people are in fear of their lives and are seeing their homes destroyed, that there are calls now for even more coal and gas, which will just put even more people in this country at threat.
“If we want to ensure that we face fewer risks from floods and fires and droughts in the future, and that we protect our economy as well as protecting lives and livelihoods, then we’ve got to stop opening new coal and gas mines.”
Renewable energy generation currently makes up just over 40 per cent of the National Energy Market, with Labor hoping to reach the 82 per cent mark in the next five years.
Mr Bandt, who is hopeful that the Greens will gain substantial bargaining power should Labor fall into minority government at the coming election, said there was “massive cognitive dissonance” on the energy debate within the ranks of major parties and big corporations.
“Labor and (the) Liberals say they’re concerned about the fires and floods that are ravaging Australia at the moment and then they come to Canberra and they back approving over 30 new coal and gas mines, and then big corporations come out and call for even more,” he said.
“But note that these big corporations and Labor and Liberal are putting Australian lives at threat by backing more coal and gas. What does it mean to tackle the climate crisis? It means stopping opening new coal and gas projects.
“Australia is blessed with so much sun and wind, we could be powering ourselves with renewable energy, backed up with storage, and instead you have big corporations, Labor and Liberal all saying they want more gas and more coal.”
Ms Daniel, who is facing a strong Liberal campaign to wrest back her seat of Goldstein, also declared the answer to the concerns raised by food distributors was more, not less, renewable energy.
“From the conversations I have with small businesses in my electorate, what they would like is government support to electrify. They would like solar panels on their roofs, they would like collective batteries so that they can store their energy and then they won’t have energy bills, or their energy bills will be very low,” she said at the National Press Club.
“I think that’s the low-hanging fruit that could support small business through the transition.”
Ms Daniel also said the energy bill increases that had prompted calls for the climate change agenda to be recalibrated had nothing to do with the renewable energy transition, but were because of high international gas prices and ongoing war in Ukraine.
“I think that we have to be realistic with ourselves and say, we are part way down the track of the renewable energy transition,” she said. “Firstly, winding that back would be very expensive, but also we can’t support coal-fired power stations into the future, that will be more expensive.”
While infrastructure, peak business, mining and gas chiefs all backed the need for the 82 per cent target to be reassessed, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen and Resources Minister Madeleine King shot back at the growing revolt in the business world as being nothing more than vested interest.
“The government takes its advice from the experts – the best way to keep the lights on and prices down is with renewables, backed by batteries, hydro and gas peaking,” the ministers said on Tuesday.
“The shift to clean, renewable energy is well under way but in the meantime we need gas to ensure our energy system remains stable, reliable and affordable – our gas strategy manages that.”
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