Younger Australians prioritise reducing carbon emissions over energy affordability, reliability

A new survey reveals high support for affordability in the power market among those over 35.

The Yallourn Power Station in Victoria. Picture: Mark Stewart

Support for reducing carbon emissions is dominated by younger Australians, with new polling revealing a high support for affordability and reliability in the electricity market among voters aged 35 and older.

A new OmniPoll obtained by The Australian testing voter sentiment on renewables and electricity network priorities shows that, with the exception of Australians aged 24 and under, affordability was rated the highest priority across the nation.

“There are striking patterns across age groups, with the priority for emissions reduction being by far the highest among 18-24-year-olds then dropping progressively by age. The opposite is true for reliability,” the research stated.

The survey, conducted online by OmniPoll last month using a sample of 1242 voters across the country, showed 81 per cent of Australians supported the use of renewables as part of the nation’s energy mix.

When asked to rank affordability of electricity, reducing carbon emissions and maintaining relia­bility from most important to least, one in two Australians rated affordability ahead of emissions.

 

“Arguably, the fact that many rate affordability ahead of reliability may reflect people taking reliability for granted. Nonetheless the results do point to affordability as being the most prevalent hot-button issue.

“The average or mean importance rankings people assign to the three areas again show affordability as the leading issue. Emissions and reliability rank equally but well below affordability.”

The research comes as opposition climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler on Wednesday committed Labor to ensuring its emission targets “in a long-term and in a medium-term sense should comply with the best possible scientific and economic advice about how we implement the Paris commitments”.

“Those are to make sure we keep global warming well below two degrees and pursue efforts around 1.5 degrees. That is the basis on which we formed our previous policies based on advice from the Climate Change Authority, delivered a little over five years ago in 2014,” Mr Butler said.

“The Climate Change Authority is set up by the parliament … specifically empowered with giving advice to the parliament, the government and the community about these things. That was the way in which we formed our advice in the past and I’d hope would be the way in which we formed our policies in the future.”

Labor this week supported a climate emergency motion in parliament and provided tentative support for the Coalition’s Big Stick legislation, which the opposition claimed would do nothing to lower power prices.

Anthony Albanese on Wednesday said the Coalition “don’t have a plan for energy”, with opposition assistant minister for climate change Pat Conroy declaring wholesale energy prices had “gone up by 158 per cent in the last three years alone”.