Climate Change and Energy Policy

Principles

1. A radical change is required in energy policy and investments, shifting from a centralised, inefficient, coal-dominated network to a decentralised system based on renewable energy sources and maximising efficiency, offering climate protection and other environmental, social and economic benefits.
2. Climate change, caused primarily by our reliance on polluting fossil fuels for energy, is the greatest challenge facing humanity this century. Both its impact and the way we tackle its causes will have massive ramifications for our society, economy and environment. Climate change must be factored into every decision governments make and must be top priority in all decisions about our energy networks.
3. Tackling climate change early is a win-win solution. The shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency will be good for the economy and generate far more jobs than could be lost, as well as protecting the global climate and local environments.
4. Australia’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels is increasingly an environmental, political and economic liability. The time is swiftly approaching when major parties will no longer be able to justify the status quo. The current push for nuclear power must be viewed in this context.
5. Australia must have a proactive, forward looking energy policy, including explicit timeframes, targets and strategies, which encourages and mandates the transition from the current unsustainable fossil fuel energy system to an ecologically and economically sustainable system based on sustainable energy sources.
6. Polluters must pay for damage they cause. However, the equity implications of any consequent energy prices increases must be dealt with, preferably by efficiency assistance packages.
7. A “just transition” is required for communities that have traditionally derived income from coal mining operations, to support job creation and the development of a secure economic future for those communities. Funding for retraining and the seeding of new industries in coal communities should be paid for by a levy on existing coal mines.
8. Internationally, Australia has a responsibility to assist other countries in the Asia-Pacific region to develop and meet greenhouse gas emissions targets, and to access renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. We should also provide all assistance possible to neighbours adversely affected by the impacts of Climate Change.
   
   

   Detail

   General

   The Greens NSW will work towards:
9. Reducing NSW’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, with defined, binding targets along the way;
10. Stimulating greater energy efficiency and improved demand reduction;
11. Stimulating electricity generation from renewable energy sources such as solar (active thermal and photovoltaic), wind, sustainable biomass, wave and geothermal energy;
12. Charging the true economic and environmental costs of pollution to industries that generate the pollution - consistent with the polluter pays principle;
13. Ensuring that job creation in the sustainable energy sector is equitable, targeting geographic areas and economic sectors disadvantaged by the phase out of fossil fuel energy;
14. Implementing the requirements of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, including the Kyoto Protocol, and working to further strengthen the Convention. NSW should adopt the global average Kyoto target of 5% reductions below 1990 levels, bypassing the manifestly inadequate target claimed by the Federal Government; and
15. Developing sustainability criteria for all energy developments and fuel stocks, including the exclusion of any native forest product as a biomass fuel source. Full life cycle analysis of all economic, social and environmental factors must be part of any assessment process.
    
    The Greens NSW:
16. Reject the Asia Pacific Partnership, also known as the Coal Pact, outright for its failure to include any binding targets or timelines and its promotion of nuclear power and geosequestration;
17. Do not support the use of carbon offsets or sequestration as a mechanism to justify continued burning of fossil fuels. While planting trees provides numerous environmental and economic benefits, carbon sequestered as wood is not equivalent to carbon remaining locked in fossilised geological deposits;
18. Reject geosequestration as an attempt by coal corporations to greenwash their polluting product. Geosequestration could only ever play a marginal and highly risky role in reducing global greenhouse emissions and has no potential in NSW, given the lack of safe storage sites. The dead-end focus on geosequestration is effectively undermining the vital transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency;
19. Oppose the expansion of coal mining in NSW and the expansion of coal export infrastructure, including Hunter rail networks and the Newcastle Port. The role of NSW as a global coal-pusher must come to an end;
20. Oppose the construction of new dams for large scale hydro-electricity generation because of their unacceptable environmental impacts;
21. Believe that even if its massive environmental, security and economic problems are ignored, nuclear power can never play a significant role in reducing global greenhouse emissions as its lifecycle emissions are too great and resource stocks are far too small. The nuclear energy debate is simply a distraction from the cheaper, more effective and more popular shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency; and
22. Recognise the role that markets could play in improving the sustainability of our energy networks, if environmental externalities were internalised and barriers to new entrants removed. However, the simplistic NEM market reform of the past decade has instead increased Australia’s greenhouse intensity, making the cheapest and dirtiest power source – Victoria’s brown coal – more competitive. This market failure must be corrected. In addition, the profound transitions necessary to achieve sustainability require other mechanisms such as mandatory energy efficiency standards, least-cost planning requirements, binding greenhouse benchmarks and renewable energy targets. These policy areas are dealt with in detail in the following sections.
    
    

    Fossil Fuels

    The Greens NSW:
23. Support a planned, strategic transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and energy efficiency - providing the existing energy sector with the long term security needed to make investments in new technology;
24. Support an immediate and permanent freeze on the development of any new coal fired power stations, including any using so-called ‘clean coal’ technologies;
25. Support an immediate and permanent freeze on the augmentation of existing fossil fuel electricity generation capacity. Any growth of the total pool of existing capacity must utilise renewable energy technology;
26. Support consideration of gas (as a fossil fuel) as a ‘transition’ fuel only when it directly replaces more greenhouse polluting fuel sources such as coal and oil and where it explicitly forms part of a long-term transition to renewable energy;
27. Support using income from coal royalties to rehabilitate degraded mine sites and help coal communities retrain and attract clean industries;
28. Will introduce a levy of $25 per tonne of CO2 on all fossil fuel use in NSW. This levy would be introduced as a first step towards internalising the environmental and social costs of carbon intensive energy. The levy should increase over time as energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies become more cost-effective with economies of scale;
29. Support an immediate and permanent freeze on the development of new coal mines and the expansion of Hunter Valley coal export infrastructure;
30. While supporting the Electricity Retailer Benchmarks legislation in the absence of a better regime, financial penalties for non-compliance must be set higher than the marginal cost of abatement. A timetable should be established for increases in the level of the benchmark over time, further enabling the industry to plan ahead with security. Alternatively, the scheme should be replaced by the proposed carbon levy and renewable energy and energy efficiency support programs outlined below;
31. Due to the climate impact of coal use, are committed to a blanket ban on all new coal mines in NSW and a slow phase out of current mines while affected communities are assisted with retraining and clean employment prospects;
32. Believe environmental standards and requirements for existing coal mines need to be better enforced with effective prosecutions and higher penalties for breaches of licence conditions. Local environmental monitoring committees need to be established to monitor and audit the performance of all coal mines;
33. Recognise as a result of restructuring and mechanisation, there has been a dramatic reduction of employment in the fossil fuel based electricity industry. The transition to sustainable energy will further reduce employment in coal mining and the fossil fuel energy sector. At the same time, sustainable energy industries will create employment growth in research, development, manufacturing, marketing, installation, maintenance and education that will far outweigh jobs losses in the fossil fuel industry. Industry development and workplace transition policies must be aligned to ensure geographic regions and economic areas bearing the burden of transition, share in the growth of the sustainable energy sector. This must include explicit industry development and industrial relations initiatives; and
34. Will seek to amend the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) to mandate assessment of the lifecycle climate impacts of all developments and reject those that have an impact that is greater than a defined lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions threshold.
    
    

    Renewable Energy

    The Greens NSW:
35. Believe the transition from today’s highly inefficient energy system based on fossil fuels to a sustainable energy system requires a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy technology and a dramatic improvement in energy efficiency. While these two key aspects of a sustainable energy future go hand-in-hand this policy deals with the two separately;
36. A planned, strategic phase-in of renewable energy technologies including a legislated, binding target of 20% of the state’s electricity generated from renewable energy sources by 2012 with higher targets into the future and multi-state initiatives developed;
37. Support developing manufacturing industries and jobs in renewable energy technologies, using specific research, development and commercialisation grants to attract major renewable energy projects to NSW;
38. Will implement government purchasing initiatives including requiring all NSW government agencies to purchase a minimum of 10% Greenpower by 2008 and 50% by 2012, or directly install renewable energy capacity on their buildings. The cost of this could be offset by energy efficiency measures;
39. Will legislate to prevent non-Greenpower accredited electricity products from being sold or advertised as green or environmentally friendly, possibly through a clarifying amendment to the Fair Trading Act;
40. Support a target of 50% of all operational domestic hot water heaters being solar or heat pump by 2012;
41. Will remove barriers to decentralised and distributed energy generation such as rooftop solar, small scale wind, run-of-river hydro;
42. Support re-allocating all explicit and hidden subsidies to fossil fuel-based energy generation towards renewable energy generation and energy efficiency;
43. Support a co-generation target for industry of 10% by 2012;
44. Would use income from a carbon levy of $25 per tonne of CO2 to fund sustainable energy programs and offset any inequitable social consequences resulting from the shift to sustainable energy;
45. Support a substantial increase in funding for research, development and commercialisation of renewable energy sources, such as wind, small-scale hydro-electric, sustainable biomass, solar, geothermal, tidal, wave, pyrolysis of waste materials, plants and water electrolysis;
46. Support a range of legislative amendments to create a more level playing field in the energy market, allowing sustainable energy to compete on a more equal footing with fossil fuels including streamlined access to the grid, pricing parity and two-way metering for embedded renewables, and cost reflective electricity pricing;
47. While supporting the Greenhouse Benchmarks Scheme in the absence of better options on the table, support alternative renewable energy support policies such as MRETs and/or feed-in laws, particularly in the light of movement in Victoria and South Australia towards such measures, since multi-state approach would be extremely beneficial; and
48. Support, in addition, policies to encourage rooftop solar power, such as linking requirements to air conditioner sales.
    
    

    Energy Efficiency and Conservation

    The Greens NSW:
49. Believe our society wastes a huge amount of energy – in our daily lives, in industry, in transmission from centralised generation. NSW is particularly wasteful, with one of the highest per capita rates of energy consumption in the world;
50. Believe reducing waste through energy efficiency offers major economic, social and environmental benefits, cutting energy costs and removing the need for new generating capacity. Investing in energy saving technology creates more jobs and economic activity per MWh than investing in generating more energy. Since many efficiency gains are available instantly, efficiency is also the fastest way of reducing greenhouse emissions.
51. Will work towards:
    
    • 51.1 Efficiency gains to bring NSW state-wide annual energy usage 10% below 2005 levels by 2011 and 15% below 2005 levels by 2015
    • 51.2 Requiring all new commercial buildings to meet a minimum 4 star Building Greenhouse Rating (BGR)
    • 51.3 Implementing a greenhouse trigger that requires all developments with energy related emissions above 10,000 tonnes pa to implement all available energy efficiency measures with a payback time of 4 yrs or less
    • 51.4 Requiring all NSW Government agencies to take the lead on energy efficiency, imposing penalties for failure to reach targeted energy use reductions, and to be housed in 5 star BGR buildings by 2011
    • 51.5 Restoring and improving the BASIX scheme, requiring high-rise and multi-unit developments to meet the same 40% energy reduction target as free-standing homes, ending the unsustainable and unfair gift to major ALP donors.
    • 51.6 All renovations to existing housing stock reaching the same 40% BASIX target, with upgrades required for existing sections of buildings being renovated, and the BASIX scheme extended to existing housing stock
    • 51.7 Legislating for the accelerated depreciation of energy efficiency projects as a stimulus to their development and implementation
    • 51.8 Providing government-accredited technical assistance to identify and implement energy efficiency projects for any company, organisation or individual. This assistance would be free of charge if all projects with a payback of 4 years or less are adopted
    • 51.9 Introducing ‘smart’ metering, which measures electricity use and regulate it by demand and time of day, along with new tariff arrangements to encourage energy conservation
    • 51.10 Reaching agreement at COAG meetings to expand and increase national Minimum Efficiency Performance Standards (MEPS) for all energy-using products, banning the most inefficient products from sale in Australia
    • 51.11 Removing subsidies to energy intensive industries, such as smelting and
    • 51.12 Developing alternative regulatory, educational and market mechanisms to minimise the installation and use of air conditioning.
    
    

    Electricity Markets and Energy Pricing

52. Current market mechanisms encourage suppliers and generators to pursue commercial objectives without regard for the social or environmental consequences.
53. The Greens NSW will work to:
    
    • 53.1 Integrate full environmental and social costs in energy pricing
    • 53.2 Remove hidden subsidies for fossil fuels and pricing signals that encourage inefficiency
    • 53.3 Implement more advanced models of integrated least-cost planning
    • 53.4 Remove off peak electricity pricing for hot water as prices do not include the environmental costs of generation, and unfairly disadvantage solar hot water
    • 53.5 Include the full cost of transmission in generation prices as current pricing mechanisms do not take account of transmission losses, and unfairly disadvantage local embedded generation such as solar PV, and distributed co-generation
    • 53.6 Introduce tax deductions and allow accelerated depreciation for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies and
    • 53.7 Introduce a fund to improve the energy efficiency of housing stock for disadvantaged people, to offset and prevent the inequitable impact of electricity price rises as full environmental costs are integrated.
54. Introduction of least-cost planning in the retail energy sector and in electricity and gas distribution units (wires and pipes business) is needed. Least-cost planning applied to energy planning means that the full and long-term social, environmental and economic costs of energy production, generation, supply and use are assessed. Least-cost planning requires pricing comparisons between energy sources and between demand management, end-use efficiency, distributed generation and traditional supply options. Such a planning model would encourage the development of commercially viable energy demand and supply options in the market place.
55. The full costs of conventional energy sources continues to be obscured by a variety of measures including tax exemptions, low interest government guaranteed loans, direct government grants, cross-subsidies and investment formulas that allow concealment of capital costs. While industry restructuring has resolved some barriers to sustainability, the introduction of wholesale and retail competition and the creation of a National Electricity Market has raised new issues with significant long term consequences. The Greens NSW will work to progressively dismantle embedded financial mechanisms that support fossil fuels over more sustainable energy sources, and include environmental and social costs in the National Electricity Market and all pricing mechanisms.

Follow this link for The Greens NSW Climate Change and Energy Policy Summary.