Pearson called the Energy Green Paper an “unambiguous endorsement of the future of coal and uranium exports” and said the document lays out a reform path for Australia to reduce the costs of electricity to households and business.
“As [the report] notes, the International Energy Agency is forecasting strong global energy demand growth to 2035, with coal increasing by 17% and nuclear power by 66% alongside growth in oil and gas and renewables,” Pearson said.
“Global demand will be led by the emerging economies of China, India and southeast Asia, which will also lead the way on the deployment on high efficiency, low emission technologies.”
The MCA also endorsed the Green Paper’s “balanced approach” on deregulation and microeconomic reform, productivity and competitiveness, investment in technology and protecting the environment.
The lobby group also supported the paper’s goal of removing the shackles from our energy markets and energy exporters, “as this is vital for Australia’s prosperity and that of our customer nations who are seeking to lift hundreds of millions of their people out of poverty”
The paper’s recognition that Australia’s emissions productivity has been improving steadily for the past two decades was also an interesting observation of the paper.
“The key to lower emissions was greater productivity and innovation, not a tax or costly subsidies for favoured technologies,” Pearson said.
The MCA also encouraged the government to deliver on a technology-neutral approach to energy policy including by: tackling market-distorting subsidies such as the Renewable Energy Target which adds between 10-15% to the energy costs of mining companies, and removing the ban on nuclear power to allow its serious consideration for a low emissions future.
The MCA also welcomed the Green Paper’s concern about restrictions on investment by international institutions such as the World Bank on the deployment of coal-fired power generation plants in the world’s poorest nations.
“These restrictions will mean that the world’s poorest people will be denied access to energy,” he said.
“As the Paper correctly suggests, these restrictions may harm both the future economic growth of developing countries and the adoption of high efficiency low emissions coal-fired power stations and carbon capture and storage.”
On the other side of the debate, Lock the Gate national coordinator Phil Laird’s response to the Green Paper was that "this is not a recipe for energy security but more of the same, centred around an unsafe and unwanted onshore gas industry and unchecked coal mining”
"Australians want our energy policy to meet the challenges of the 21st century. What we have here is a blueprint for the fastest and most brutal quarry economy we can let loose, and rural landscapes, water resources and our food security will be the collateral damage," he said.
"From the Kimberley and the Red Centre, to the rich farmlands of Gippsland, the Upper Hunter and Liverpool Plains, the landscapes, water resources and people of regional Australia are having unwelcome mining for coal and unconventional gas thrust upon them to meet the greedy demands of mining companies. This Green Paper shows that we clearly cannot look to Minister MacFarlane for balance and vision when it comes to mining for energy exports."
