Bill Shorten will say that without confidence in the policy environment, investors would never put up the billions of dollars required for energy projects.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
A series of questions by Essential on energy policy has found the Turnbull government is so far failing to persuade people of either its performance or its arguments on energy security.
A strong, certain price signal could see the dawn of a new period of investment in renewables.
EPA/NIC BOTHMA
Labor has been criticised for vacillating about about its 50% renewable energy ambition. But its proposed emissions intensity scheme could boost green energy without any hard target at all.
South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, promised radical economic transformation in his 2017 state of the nation address. A lot of what he said in support of this promise is alternative facts.
Pro-Trump supporters in Manhattan. The new US president appeals to many Americans marginalised by globalisation.
Reuters/Andrew Kelly
South Australia’s government was angry about the blackouts enforced by electricity regulators. But with much of the state’s gas power offline, the regulators had little choice.
Solar panels can be both a headache and an opportunity for network companies.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Managing voltage on the electricity network has always been an issue. But solar panels have the potential to make the situation better, not worse as some have feared.
Even the cleanest coal plants add millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere each year.
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
The Turnbull government is funding energy storage as a crucial missing piece of the electricity grid puzzle. Analysis suggests an affordable, fully renewable grid doesn’t require any heroic assumptions.
Better managing how we use electricity in our homes will reduce pressure on the grid, and reduce the need for more power stations.
Power line image from www.shutterstock.com
Fossil fuel advocates claim only coal and gas can deliver cheap and reliable energy, and renewables are synonymous with sustainability. But demand management can solve all three problems.
The rise of renewable energy is one reason the world is shifting away from coal.
Wind turbine image from www.shutterstock.com
Global emissions from fossil fuels have stalled. That puts us in the right place to keep warming below 2°C, but there’s plenty of work still to be done.
Will 2017 be the year Australia sorts out its energy policy?
Power image from www.shutterstock.com
The Trump administration has the tools to slow the momentum Obama started on clean energy. Countering Trump are global market forces and state-level action.
Renewable energy targets were a controversial topic at a recent COAG meeting between the Prime Minister, State Premiers and Territory Chief Ministers.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The electricity network can be used proactively to meet Australia’s climate and renewable energy targets.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shake hands during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, Sept. 3, 2016.
How Hwee Young/Pool Photo via AP
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Although Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax invented by China, Chinese leaders believe cutting carbon emissions will generate economic and political payoffs at home and abroad.