Finkel’s national hydrogen strategy gets green light, but could be lifeline for coal

State and federal energy ministers on Friday have adopted the National Hydrogen Strategy, prepared by chief scientist Alan Finkel, but serious questions remain over whether it will position Australia as a “green hydrogen” leader, as hoped by some, or if it will instead be used as another prop for the coal industry and carbon capture technology.

Chief scientist Alan Finkel wants a national hydrogen strategy.

The COAG energy council agreed to Finkel’s vision for a multi-billion dollar “technology-neutral” hydrogen export industry, with efforts by the ACT energy minister to limit hydrogen production to only using to renewables, rejected by federal minister Angus Taylor, who chaired the meeting.

In an interview before the meeting, Taylor suggested hydrogen production should be “technology neutral”, indicating it could be down using brown coal. There are fears the strategy will be used as an excuse to prop up the economics of coal and use hydrogen as part of marketing ploy in the same league as “clean coal”.

Read the story from RenewEconomy by Michael Mazengarb - “Finkel’s national hydrogen strategy gets green light, but could be lifeline for coal.”

Scott Morrison needs a plan to cut emissions but all he has is a fairytale

It all starts as a bit of a fairytale,” the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, told a room full of renewable energy types in Canberra this week. “Once upon a time there was an independent review into the national energy market.”

‘Alan Finkel says a moment has arrived in Australia’s national
 story. But the Morrison government has nothing to say'.

Finkel did conduct that review at the behest of Malcolm Turnbull and the states when the objective was to fix the problems that have cascaded through the energy market since Tony Abbott opposed Labor’s carbon price to win an election.

The chief scientist proposed a clean energy target as the fix. Abbott and the deep feelings brigade inside the Coalition didn’t like it. It wouldn’t fly, so Turnbull and the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, retreated and regrouped. They then got officials to produce the national energy guarantee, hoping that would work, given the Neg mechanism dealt with both reliability and emissions reduction, and that might subdue some of the conservative opposition.

Read the story from The Guardian by Katharine Murphy - “Scott Morrison needs a plan to cut emissions but all he has is a fairytale.”

Electric cars – we should be careful what we wish for.

With electric vehicles (EVs) we should be careful what we wish for. Recently 79 per cent of panellists surveyed for a newspaper said that more should be done to encourage their use, and the Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, is an owner and a notable advocate. However, the story is not all good.

Toyota Prius.

Let’s take greenhouse gas emissions. Dr Finkel pointed out that a Tesla, charged at the national average greenhouse intensity of the grid (910 kg CO2/MWh), is responsible for 168 grams of CO2 per km (emitted at the power station), and a Toyota Corolla for 178 grams per km (at the tailpipe). He also mentions one of the smallest EVs in the Australian Green Vehicle Guide, the Renault Zoe, at 121 grams per km.

Read the comment in The Age by George Wilkenfeld - “Electric cars – we should be careful what we wish for.”

(Still, we miss the point - the conversation should not be about the effectiveness of any sort of privately owned vehicle (electric or otherwise) as the energy-rich infrastructure such vehicles demand is prohibitively carbon-costly. We face an energy-scarce future and rather than spending time, effort and innovation on what can be easily shown to be a wasteful pursuit, we should be exploring, creating and building a public transport/transit system that through its sophistication will make the privately-owned car wholly irrelevant - Robert McLean) 

Climate action in 2018: expect same, but different

As I predicted a year ago, 2017 was another vicious and bloody-minded year in Australian climate politics. Yet the political bickering belied the fact that it was actually a great year for green energy.

Illustration by Andrew Dyson.

Nowhere was that more in evidence than in South Australia, which got its big battery inside a 100-day deadline, with the world’s biggest solar thermal plant set to begin construction this year. Elsewhere, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talked up the prospects of the Snowy 2.0 hydro storage project.

Yet the politics remain as rancorous as ever. The federal government unveiled its National Energy Guarantee (NEG) in November, after Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s Clean Energy Target proved too rich for some in the Coalition. Just before Christmas, the long-awaited climate policy review was released, and was immediately branded as weak.

Both issues are unresolved, and are set to loom large on the landscape this year. But what else is on the horizon?

Read Marc Hudson’s comment in today’s Melbourne Age - “Climate action in 2018: expect same, but different.”

Malcolm Turnbull wants us to bet on the National Energy Guarantee trifecta without seeing the detail

Forget chief scientist Alan Finkel's exhaustive inquiry. Forget the months of evidence and sophisticated modelling. Forget the detailed report on electricity prices by the ACCC. Forget the RET and the CET. Now we've got the NEG.

Malcolm Turnbull has asked the public to "trust the experts".

If you believe the Government, the NEG — or National Energy Guarantee — will deliver the trifecta: no blackouts, less carbon dioxide emissions and lower prices.

Energy policy nirvana without a "re-neg" on Australia's climate change commitments.

There is serious room for doubt, but who really knows? It's impossible to make a definitive judgement because the policy, made on the run with obvious haste, is so sketchy.

This is a scheme based on an eight-page letter, outlining the germ of an idea, from a little-known body established just two months ago — the Energy Security Board — which is largely comprised of representatives from energy regulators who are partly responsible for the mess we're in.

The devil, always in the detail, is yet to come.

Read Stephen Long’s analysis on the ABC News - “Malcolm Turnbull wants us to bet on the National Energy Guarantee trifecta without seeing the detail.”

Dumping clean energy target is 'dealbreaker' for Labor's support

Shadow climate change
minister Mark Butler.

The shadow climate change minister Mark Butler says Labor won’t support the Turnbull government’s new energy policy if it dumps the clean energy target recommended by the chief scientist, Alan Finkel.

With the Turnbull government expected to press ahead with its new energy policy this week after consideration by the cabinet and the party room, Butler issued a clear public warning on Sunday that the loss of the clean energy target meant there was no prospect of bipartisan agreement between the major parties.

Butler said Labor had been prepared to keep an open mind on the clean energy target, even though it was not the opposition’s preferred policy option, because the model had been thought through by the chief scientist and endorsed uniformly by stakeholders across the community.

Read Katharine Murphy’s story on The Guardian - “Dumping clean energy target is 'dealbreaker' for Labor's support.”

Path cleared for release of Turnbull's reliable energy package

Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg -
he has failed Australians.

Malcolm Turnbull's long-awaited energy package will be released as soon as next week after the energy committee of cabinet approved the package on Wednesday, clearing a major hurdle to the policy's release.

The energy package will dump Chief Scientist Alan Finkel's proposal for a clean energy target and, instead, focus on a clutch of measures aimed at fixing reliability issues in the National Electricity Market, and improving electricity affordability.

The full cabinet is now likely to examine the package of measures next Monday ahead of the package being presented to the Coalition party room as early as Tuesday morning.

Along with resolving the same-sex marriage issue this year, finalising its post-2020 energy policy is a key political objective Malcolm Turnbull has set his government, and is seen within the Coalition as a necessary hurdle to be cleared if the government is to revive its fortunes in 2018.

Read the story by James Massola and Mark Kenny in today’s Melbourne Age - “Path cleared for release of Turnbull's reliable energy package.”

(It's time the Turnbull Government got serious about resolving Australia's energy crisis and within that made a genuine attempt to reduce Australia's carbon dioxide emissions. There is, sadly, no silver bullet solution rather, achievement of such a target needs a many facetted attack from societal behaviour to a serious and sweeping change about our approach to energy creation and its use.

One thing a bold and innovative government should be doing is building a renewable energy infrastrucfure in that it should be working toward making every premises, domestic and business, its own power station, through the use of solar and batteries, and wind, and a smart grid the draws both hydro and wave power, not to mention geothermal.

Beyond, thatit shoudl be helping Australians better understand how they can continue to lead fulfilling and complete lives while using less energy.

It won't be easy, it will be confrontational and controversial, but ultimately, comforting - Robert McLean)

Chief Scientist Alan Finkel makes last ditch plea for clean energy target

Australia's Chief Scientist Alan Finkel has made a last-ditch plea to save the proposed clean energy target, even as the Turnbull government signalled it will reject the proposal by the end of the year.

Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel and South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill. 

South Australian premier Jay Weatherill responded on Monday to the apparent standstill, saying the states should "bypass the federal government and provide investment certainty for the electricity sector" by adopting their own target.

The Turnbull government asked Dr Finkel to review Australia's electricity market to set a policy path that would ensure reliability in the electricity system while also providing clear policy settings to drive investment in generation - something the business community has been demanding.

But in the face of strong opposition from sections of the Coalition backbench to the clean energy target, the Turnbull government delayed any decision on the target while adopting the other 49 recommendations in the Finkel review.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Cole Larimer and James Massola - “Chief Scientist Alan Finkel makes last ditch plea for clean energy target.”

Can two clean energy targets break the deadlock of energy and climate policy?

Malcolm Turnbull’s government has been wrestling with the prospect of a clean energy target ever since Chief Scientist Alan Finkel recommended it in his review of Australia’s energy system. But economist Ross Garnaut has proposed a path out of the political quagmire: two clean energy targets instead of one.

Garnaut’s proposal is essentially a flexible emissions target that can be adapted to conditions in the electricity market. If electricity prices fail to fall as expected, a more lenient emissions trajectory would likely be pursued.

This proposal is an exercise in political pragmatism. If it can reassure both those who fear that rapid decarbonisation will increase energy prices, and those who argue we must reduce emissions at all costs, it represents a substantial improvement over the current state of deadlock.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Director of Carbon and Energy Markets from Victoria University, Bruce Mountain - “Can two clean energy targets break the deadlock of energy and climate policy?”

Renewable energy booming but could soon turn to bust, analysts warn

Australia produced enough renewable energy to power 70 per cent of households last financial year, new data shows, but advocates warn the booming industry will flounder unless the Turnbull government commits to a clean energy target.

Sunverge chief executive Ken Munson said
Australia's high penetration of rooftop solar,
where one in five homes use power from
 the sun, put the country at the forefront of
 the transforming energy industry. 

The government is sharply divided over whether to adopt the target, the central recommendation of Chief Scientist Alan Finkel's review of the national electricity market.

New data to be released on Monday shows Australia produced enough renewable energy to power 7.1 million homes, or 70 per cent of households, in the year to June.

This avoided carbon pollution equal to removing 8.1 million cars from the road for a year – more than half the cars in Australia.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Renewable energy booming but could soon turn to bust, analysts warn.”

Finkel’s Clean Energy Target plan ‘better than nothing’: economists poll

Few topics have attracted as much political attention in Australia over the past decade as emissions reduction policy.

Enough blue-sky thinking: economists back the
emissions policy that Alan Finkel has put on the table.

Amid mounting concern over electricity price increases across Australia and coinciding with blackouts in South Australia and near-misses in New South Wales, the Australian government asked Chief Scientist Alan Finkel to provide a blueprint for reform of the electricity industry, in a context in which emissions reduction policy was an underlying drumbeat.

In a new poll of the ESA Monash Forum of leading economists, a majority said that Finkel’s suggested Clean Energy Target was not necessarily a better option than previously suggested policies such as an emissions trading scheme. But many added that doing nothing would be worse still.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Director of Carbon and Energy Markets at Victoria University, Bruce Mountain -  “Finkel’s Clean Energy Target plan ‘better than nothing’: economists poll.”

The government’s new energy plans will leave investors less confident than ever.

Australians should be deeply concerned about the signals coming from the Turnbull government since this month’s release of Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s landmark report on the future of Australia’s electricity system.

The bid to keep the lights on is prompting ever more
government meddling in electricity markets.

On Tuesday the government announced a new package of policies for the electricity sector. This includes asking the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to look at “how to ensure that new continuous dispatchable power is provided, including what support is needed to promote new investment”.

Effectively, the government is asking AEMO to identify whether Australia has enough “baseload” generation and, if not, how the government should go about getting more.

Read the piece on The Conversation by an Energy Fellow from the Grattan Institute, Dvid Blowers - “The government’s new energy plans will leave investors less confident than ever.”

On climate, the consumer’s vote will be more important than the party room’s

Chief scientist Alan Finkel got a lot of people very excited when he released his draft report into Australia energy security last December, less than three months after the September blackout put conservatives into a flap over wind and solar.

 Chief scientist Alan Finkel. 

We were in the midst of an unstoppable energy transition, he said, one based on cheap renewables, storage and smart software. And the technologies to address the reliability and security issues were at hand, though they were not being encouraged by the design of the market.

The energy system, Finkel went on, would need to shift dramatically from a centralised model (aka coal plants) to a decentralised model (aka rooftop solar and storage). The power, quite literally would return to the people. It was all rather exciting.

Fast forward to 9 June, and Finkel’s delivery of his final report to Council of Australian Governments leaders in Hobart, and many people are wondering what happened in between. Blame the full moon or Dark MOFO happening in the same city, but Finkel’s view of the energy future didn’t look much different to the one we’ve got now.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson on Inside Story - “On climate, the consumer’s vote will be more important than the party room’s.”

Finkel energy review is a political fix, but it's a crucial one

Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel.

The Chief Scientist says otherwise, but this is a political fix – and an understandable one.

When Alan Finkel released a preliminary report into energy security last year, there was no mention of the latest policy now thrust into the centre of the decade-old political climate wars – the creatively named clean energy target.

Read Adam Morton’s analysis in today’s Melbourne Age - “Finkel energy review is a political fix, but it's a crucial one.”

Coalition’s Finkel fail: Energy review fails on science and ignores health impacts on community

National environment group Friends of the Earth say the Federal Coalition government's Finkel Review on energy has ignored the latest science on climate change and health impacts from coal pollution.

Friends of the Earth's climate change spokesperson Leigh Ewbank is "shocked" by the report's omissions given the scientific pedigree of the author, Dr Alan Finkel:   

"It's puzzling that Dr Alan Finkel, Australia's chief scientist and founder of Cosmos magazine, has failed to account for the latest science on climate change and health impacts from coal," said Leigh Ewbank. 

"Alarming melting of the polar icecaps and extensive bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef shows we need a rapid rollout of solar and wind, not incentives for new coal or gas. Renewable energy is the cost effective solution for the modern economy.”

Read the Friends of The Earth story - “Coalition’s Finkel fail: Energy review fails on science and ignores health impacts on community.”

Alan Finkel: the man who could bring peace to Australia's climate wars

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts was waiting but Alan Finkel was ready.

Chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel. 

The chief scientist, who has a PhD in electrical engineering and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in neuroscience, could see what Parliament's most persistent climate change sceptic was doing.

Did Dr Finkel believe it was important for a scientist to keep an open mind, Senator Roberts wanted to know.

Dr Finkel spotted the trap and said he was happy to own up to a "healthy degree of scepticism”.

Read Stephanie Peatling’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Alan Finkel: the man who could bring peace to Australia's climate wars.”

Tony Abbott warns against low emissions target ahead of Finkel review

Tony Abbott has fired a public warning shot ahead of Friday’s release of the Finkel review, declaring it would be a “big mistake” for the government to adopt a low emissions target which knocked out new high-efficiency coal-fired power stations.

Tony Abbott: ‘Anything that makes it impossible for us
 to bank new, efficient coal-fired power
stations I think is a big mistake.’ 

The former prime minister used a radio interview on 2GB on Wednesday afternoon to add his dissenting voice to commentary already expressed by government conservatives in the wake of Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

Abbott said he was concerned about media reports that Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, would recommend a low emissions target to the prime minister and the premiers this Friday.

He said he was anxious, based on “well briefed” reports, that the Finkel review “gives us not 50%, but 70% renewables by 2030 – and coal, which is by far the cheapest form of baseload power … goes from currently about 65% to 20% of total energy generation.”

Read The Guardian story - “Tony Abbott warns against low emissions target ahead of Finkel review.”

Climate Change Authority says Turnbull government should adopt new low emissions target

The Turnbull government should adopt a Low Emissions Target as a fall back option to help Australia reduce its carbon emissions and meet its Paris climate targets, according to the Climate Change Authority.

The Climate Change Authority says the Turnbull
government should adopt a low emissions target. 

The call is contained in a new joint report by the Authority and the Australian Energy Market Regulator, requested by Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, on how to improve power security in Australia and reduce electricity prices.

Fairfax Media understands the recommendation is likely to be mirrored in chief scientist Alan Finkel's review of the electricity sector, which will be released at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting next Friday. 

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Climate Change Authority says Turnbull government should adopt new low emissions target.”

Ian Chubb stands between us and raft of difficulties

Australia's Chief Scientist,
Ian Chubb.

Beyond “people power”, Ian Chubb appears to be the prime defence Australia has against the raft of difficulties arising from climate change.

Australia’s chief scientist, according to The Saturday Paper holds the future of science and innovation in his hands. If he can make the government listen.

An interview with Mr Chubb by Romona Koval helps us understand a little more the intrigue of the role and its significance to the Abbott Government.

Her story: “Chief Scientist Ian Chubb's scientific methods” gives some insight on the man who is really our last line of defence in the climate change conversation.