10 December 2015, Renew Economy, Adani hits panic button over Carmichael coal mine. In a seemingly desperate move the billionaire chairman of Adani has announced that early in November he met the new Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and demanded legislation be passed to extinguish legal actions challenging the proposed Carmichael coal mine. On Saturday, a little over a month after his meeting with Turnbull, Gautam Adani complained to journalists that legal challenges against the $15 billion mine, railway and port project had caused banks to refuse to finance the project. “Ultimately, a decision lies with the politicians. They have to go to Parliament for enacting a special law which says that once government gives approval, no one can challenge it. That is what our request is to the Australian government. You come up with a special legislation which they have done in the past also,” Adani complained. “Even though there is no stay, because of the judicial review, no lender will finance the project. They do not know what will be the outcome,” Adani told journalists, including the Indian business news website LiveMint. Adani also bemoaned the dramatic slump in thermal coal process in the seaborne coal market. “In the meanwhile, coal prices have also slumped. We have to revive to the next cycle,” he said. Adani’s loneliness on display Adani’s comments, which reveal how isolated the company has become, are extraordinary for three reasons. Firstly, the fact that Adani has chosen to go public just over a month after the November 4 meeting suggests that Turnbull didn’t immediately accede to Adani’s demand to extinguish the legal rights. In other words, having failed with his behind-the-scenes lobbying, the company is now pinning its hopes on publicly pressing its case via comments to Indian journalists. Read more here
Category Archives: Australian Response
9 December 2015, Renew Economy, Paris, COP21: Australia digs in on fossil fuels, sees coal as solution to hunger. One of the big themes of the Paris climate talks has been the focus on renewable energy – wind and solar in particular – as a means to reach emission reduction pledges, and cut pollution in the cities. Australia’s Coalition government, however, is sticking to a familiar theme: it has invested heavily in fossil fuels with long-life assets it is keen to retain and, anyway, coal is still good for humanity. Foreign minister Julie Bishop used a forum hosted by Indonesia called “Pathways to a Sustainable Low Carbon and Climate Resilient Economy” to push the case for Australian fossil fuels. “Right now we are in a transition phase,” Bishop said. “Traditional energy sources, fossil fuels like coal, will remain a significant part of the global energy mix for the foreseeable future. “Barring some technological breakthrough fossil fuels will remain critical to promoting prosperity, growing economies and alleviating hunger for years to come.” Hunger? It seems a variation of the “coal is good for humanity” theme, despite repeated estimates by the likes of the IEA, the World Bank and others that suggest the needs of poor countries are probably best served by renewable energy. The comments yet again underline the disconnect between Australia’s apparent support for a global target of “well below 2°C” and its lack of policies to get its economy beyond the fossil fuel age – few renewables are being built and none of the major coal generators are being closed. Bishop suggested this would be the status quo. “It is a fact that energy is the mainstay of our respective countries’ export markets and underpins economic growth,” she said. “The capital stock and infrastructure we have in stock to create and supply energy, both fossil fuels and renewables, have long life spans.” So no early closures then. Read more here
8 December 2015, Renew Economy, Paris, COP21: Ministers move in, as do the climate deniers. Nearly 200 ministers have arrived in Paris to bargain and negotiate over the final 20 pages of text, and the 290 or so brackets that remain – the outcome of which will decide whether this agreement will fulfil its ambitions, or be full of empty rhetoric. Australia foreign minister Julie Bishop arrived, delivered her speech to the plenary, and promised …. $625,000 on promoting the interests of women in climate-related decision-making processes. If that seemed a little underwhelming, so did the rest of the speech. Typically of the Australian government at these talks, it was fine on rhetoric – particularly about prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s innovation plan (this government has edited its slogans down from three words to a single word, innovation) but short on action, particularly on climate and clean energy, using the technologies already available. Bishop told the plenary that Australia is “transforming the way we produce electricity”, but the data shows coal-fired generation is rising, thanks to the repeal of the carbon price and the halt in renewable energy investment thanks to the Coalition fiddling with previously agreed policies. RenewEconomy asked the minister later if the government was worried that the government’s policies were having the opposite effect of their stated intention. There was more talk of the renewable energy target, and the doubling of the rate of emissions reductions under its 2030 target. Read More here
8 December 2015, Renew Economy, How Australia can lead on climate in the final week at Paris. Australia has a final chance to shake its reputation as a global climate laggard and position our economy for a boom in growth with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop taking the reins for the final week of climate negotiations in Paris. The agreements set this week will give smart nations an opportunity to test cutting edge ideas, and could potentially enable Australia to start attracting more of the world’s leading companies and brightest thinkers to our shores. Unfortunately, the first week of negotiations suggests that Australia is on track to miss this unique opportunity to seize the lead and position Australian business to capture a share of the trillions now being invested in the shift to a low carbon economy. Given there is virtually no chance of Australia meaningfully changing it’s 26-28% reduction target at this late stage, the Future Business Council has compiled three simple yet significant actions Australia could announce instead. These actions would boost our credibility, play to our economy’s natural advantages and prepare our business community for future growth. Read More here