Ministers at the last COAG Energy Council meeting, in April 2018. Some faces have since changed, while some states have entrenched their positions.
AAP Image/James Ross
As energy ministers head into a crucial meeting with their federal counterpart Josh Frydenberg, our state-by-state guide compares their various stances on the future of the National Energy Guarantee.
Frydenberg said: “Never before has there been an energy policy that has attracted such broad support.”
Alex Murray/AAP
Meanwhile, underlining that next week will see a tough internal debate, Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin has contradicted Malcolm Turnbull’s statement that the NEG had already been endorsed by the party room.
Blue-sky thinking? It’s hard to assess the evidence base for the predicted outcomes of the National Energy Guarantee.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Salim Mazouz, Australian National University; Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University e Hugh Saddler, Australian National University
The final design of the National Energy Guarantee promises that the policy will drive down power prices. But there is precious little evidence for this assertion.
Images of the aftermath of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam collapse in Laos went around the world. But many other dam projects harm locals and the environment in less visible ways.
Is the sun setting fast enough on coal-fired power?
Gerry Machen/Flickr
Australia needs to accelerate its transition to clean energy, and not prolong the use of high-polluting, coal-fired infrastructure. Otherwise it risks missing out on an economic windfall.
Australia’s consumer watchdog has concluded that rooftop solar incentives have distorted the market unfairly for those who cannot afford solar panels, and has recommended the scheme ends ten years early.
There are calls from the backbench and elsewhere for the federal government to safeguard the future of coal. But do those calls make economic sense? A look at Queensland’s energy landscape suggests not.
Offshore wind turbine near Scotland.
U.S. Department of the Interior
Generating less electricity with fossil fuels could help save lives.
Heads of state attended the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, on June 9, 2018. Top row: European Council president Donald Tusk, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde. Bottom row: Seychelles President Danny Faure, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. US president Donald Trump’s recent protectionist moves were at the top of the agenda.
Ludovic Marin/AFP
After the G7 fiasco, it’s clear that a trade war is in the making. US justifications of “national security concerns” for its tariffs suggest a legitimate target for EU countermeasures: coal.
The latest research suggests that in Australia, rooftop solar photovoltaics are more likely to be adopted by middle-class households.
Households that are most likely to go solar are those that can afford solar panels, but aren’t so rich that they don’t have to worry about their electricity bill at all, says a survey of 8,000 homes.
The Khi Solar One concentrating solar power plant in South Africa.
Wikicommons
Mercè Labordena, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Solar power technology has huge potential for Africa. But there are some barriers.
According to a recent report, New Zealand will need to increase renewable electricity generation, plant more trees and continue switching to electric transport more rapidly to achieve its zero carbon goal by 2050.
from www.shutterstock.com
New Zealand has set itself a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and a recent report by the Productivity Commission lays out how it could hit that target.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, right, and California Governor Jerry Brown, left, discuss drought and water restrictions on August 11, 2015. Faulconer has championed renewable energy, water recycling and other climate-friendly policies.
AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi
They may not say ‘climate change,’ but many Republican US mayors support clean energy, jobs in renewable industries, and other climate-friendly policies. And so do majorities of their constituents.
Solar lowers prices and shifts when daily peak demand hours are.
Duke Energy
Joachim Seel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Andrew Mills, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory e Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Large-scale solar and wind tend to push energy prices down, which sounds great as a consumer. But that makes keeping the grid in constant balance harder.
Solar panels being installed in new housing under construction in Sacramento, Calif.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Environmentalists and climate hawks are cheering, but many experts aren’t excited about the state making rooftop solar panels mandatory on most new homes beginning in 2020.
Ammonia production is one of the most energy-intensive industrial processes on the planet.
By saoirse2013/shutterstock.com
Producing ammonia, which is a key ingredient in fertilizers, is one of the world’s most energy-intensive chemical manufacturing processes. Now there’s a new low energy option in development.