2024 Annual Climate Change Statement to Parliament

Each day in this Parliament, we acknowledge that we meet on the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples.  

While acknowledgement and celebration are right and proper, they’re not sufficient. 

As custodians of the lands and waters for many thousands of years, our First Nations people have a unique insight as we watch our climate change right across Australia. 

Human induced climate change affects people everywhere, but there is no inequality that climate change doesn’t make worse, including indigenous inequality.   

More positively, acting on climate change can and should provide opportunities for First Nations people to share in ownership and dividends from new renewable energy; from carbon abatement programs; and from work we do to increase climate resilience around Australia. 

As with everything, there is more to do.  

But I, and the Government, are determined to ensure that whatever work happens to reduce emissions and build Australia into a renewable energy superpower happens in partnership with First Nations Peoples.  

We’ve already launched the First Nations Clean Energy and Climate Change Advisory Committee, and I’m looking forward to announcing our First Nations Clean Energy Strategy very soon. 
 
INTRODUCTION  

Mr Speaker, this week has been a reminder of why decarbonising matters.  

Not just the unseasonably hot weather, but the increasing unreliability of coal.  

Renewables address both.  

Solar, wind and other renewable energy sources are available right now to help tackle the worst of climate change.  

Crucially they make our energy system more reliable and resilient than a system dominated by aging coal generators.  

The importance of transforming to a renewable electricity system underpins the Annual Climate Change Statement, which is the third I have delivered to Parliament.  

The Annual Statement reports progress on our climate change and energy initiatives in 2024 and is an account of our commitment to transparency regarding our climate actions.   

We are doing well, but there is more to be done – for emissions, for affordability and for reliability 

I can say this because a key part of the Annual Climate Change Statement is consideration of the independent advice of the Climate Change Authority.  

Its Annual Progress Report which focuses eight of its ten recommendations on renewable energy, is made public today, along with our response to it.  

We’ve also published the latest emissions projections, and quarterly results from the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.  

The Annual Statement this year reflects how far we’ve come over the past two and a half years to get Australia back on track after a decade of delay and climate denial.  

We’ve reduced sovereign risk and rebuilt confidence in Australia as an investment destination.  

This translates to better economic activity and more long-term jobs around the country.  

We’ve now put the systems and processes in place to set us up for a prosperous future; 

To make the most of our country having the best resources in the world for what everyone wants next - sun, and wind, and critical minerals;  

To benefit from being a significant player in delivering the global shift to net zero; 

And to do it simultaneously with bringing emissions down.  

We’ve built a lot of momentum. But the job is far from done.  

The key is to build on this momentum, and build more. 

Because there is no achievable alternative that doesn’t see otherwise avoidable harm done to our environment, our planet and our future generations.  

Net zero by 2050 is not optional. Which means the critical decade is now. Not some hypothetical time in the distant future.  
 
ON TRACK FOR 2030 

And so, Mr Speaker, I’m pleased to note that the Climate Change Authority recognises the significant progress we’ve made so far.  

Its view now is that Australia has the policies in place to meet its 2030 targets.  

We’re bringing emissions down in the electricity and land sectors and that means emissions have fallen to 28.2 per cent below 2005 levels.  

Annual emissions are still lower now than they were at any point during the economy wide COVID shutdowns, when heavy industry and transport was in hiatus. 

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel and industry, when measured on a per capita basis, are the lowest they’ve been in Australia since the late eighties.  

But, they need to fall faster in future.  

The Authority has emphasised it will be important to hold course; to deliver the outcomes envisaged by the policies now in place.  

We agree.  

The annual emissions projections confirm our policies are working, and Australia is on track to deliver on our legislated targets.  

Climate inactivists and net zero opponents will find ways to say white is black by cherry picking data points.  

But the baseline projections now show emissions falling by 42.6% below 2005 levels over the next six years.  

It’s a substantially greater reduction than projected for Australia even a few years ago.  

In 2021, emissions were expected to fall just 30 per cent below 2005 levels in 2030.  

We are almost at that point now, in 2024. 

This jump reflects the strong design - and implementation progress - of significant policies the Albanese Government has introduced in the past 30 months.  

And, we are now outperforming previous projections for Australia’s legislated 10-year total emissions budget.  

Last year, we were expected to come in 1 per cent below budget by 2030.  

Today, we expect to be 3 per cent under budget, meaning Australia will have emitted about 152 million tonnes less than budgeted for this decade – cutting the equivalent of an entire year of electricity sector emissions.  

Better still, none of these projections account for other policies that are yet to be fully developed and implemented by States and Territories, and the Commonwealth.  
 
RECORD RENEWABLES IN 2024 

Transitions on the scale of what Australia, and the world, is undertaking are not easy, and do not happen overnight.  

But the pace is picking up.  

Over the past year an increase in private and public investment has helped position Australia to build a stronger, diversified and more resilient economy.  

More private capital went into developing new clean, cheap, reliable renewable energy projects in the quarter just gone, than was invested in all of 2023.   

To facilitate this demand, along with commencing national tenders for the Capacity Investment Scheme this year, I've also declared three additional areas suitable for offshore wind energy, in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.  

Whether it’s energy assets being developed offshore or onshore, we want this transition to be done right.  

So we’ve put more than $182 million towards: 

• strengthening approvals processes
• improving community engagement processes and oversight through the office of the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner; and
• bolstering processes and practices to deliver a legacy of social and economic benefits to the regions hosting our renewable transition, including through a new developer rating scheme.  

All of this is important to get right so we can shift our energy system from the old approach of relying on fossil fuels, to the modern approach of generating power from clean, cheap, reliable renewables.  

In Australia, electricity accounts for nearly 35 per cent of all emissions.  

It is the most polluting sector and decarbonising it is vital.  

Renewable energy is also vital to unlocking emissions reduction processes in other sectors, because electrification is usually the lowest-cost way to reduce emissions.  

97 per cent of our trade partners are also focused on reaching net zero and can use our help to get there.   

So we’re already seeing that a renewable electricity system is the entry ticket for Australia, Australian industry, and Australian manufacturers to become the strongest players possible in future trade partnerships.  

The Australian Energy Market Operator has been consistently clear that the Government’s solution for a rapid increase in investment to deliver new reliable renewable generation capacity, plus storage and firming, and transmission lines, will meet Australia’s growing electricity needs as our current coal fleet retires.  

Between now and 2035, the market operator expects 90 per cent of Australia’s aging, increasingly unreliable, coal fired power generators to retire.  

Just this week we’ve seen AEMO having to juggle the grid to prepare for forecast higher demand while more than 2.5GW of aging coal units are offline – broken down or out for maintenance.   

The notion that Australia’s aging coal fleet should – or in fact could - be relied on to an even greater extent to power our system, is nothing short of magical thinking.  

Already consumers are feeling the impacts of running old coal generators longer.  

There has not been a single day in the past 18 months without some coal fired generation experiencing unplanned outages.  

And as Australian Energy Regulator chair Clare Savage, who sets benchmark retail prices for consumers, told a Parliamentary Inquiry last month:  

“Increasing coal plant outages are causing havoc for supply and driving up prices.”  

On the day she testified, 26 per cent of the eastern seaboard’s coal fleet was offline, with about half down for planned maintenance and half due to failures.

“That’s having an impact on forward prices of electricity,” she said.  

“And the reason I care about that is that I care about customers.” 

So do we.  

Energy prices are a serious issue for households and businesses.  

The system isn’t as fair as it should be.  

We want to fix that.  

We know renewables are driving wholesale electricity prices down.  

It’s why we welcome that the focus of recommendations made by the Authority this year is on optimising the rollout of the cheapest form of energy – renewables - and to improving energy performance.  

We have agreed; agreed in principle or noted; all the Authority’s recommendations. 

And it’s particularly pleasing to see data from the Australian Energy Market Commission today that confirms more renewables in our grid will continue pushing energy bills down over the next ten years.  

It also confirms that delays to renewables would in fact increase costs.  

The good news is that we’re making significant progress to bring more cheap energy into the system.  

And, we’ve made sure every household is getting $300 energy bill relief this financial year, and eligible small businesses are getting $325.  

Inflation data out yesterday shows a record fall in electricity prices, down more than 35 per cent from October last year.     

2024 has now set the all-time record for renewables.  

Data released by the Clean Energy Regulator today shows up to 7.5GW of renewable capacity will have been connected to the grid this year. 

Just under half of that will come from rooftop solar, a sign that households and businesses are getting real value from the economic benefits that come when you harness free sunshine. 

Earlier this month I met Simone and Richard who live in Winston Hills.  

It was the same day their solar installers were out the front with vans and ladders, putting up their new system.  

You see, Mr Speaker, Simone and Richard were the recipients of Australia’s 4 millionth solar installation.   

They were also installing a battery, and an EV charger, like so many other Australians.  

This world-beating uptake has been made possible by the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme.  
And it means we’ve now got more rooftop solar capacity in our system than the entire fleet of coal fired power stations across the country. 

That means households and businesses are winning on two fronts – looking after our future generations by bringing down emissions; and bringing down power bills today, and for years to come.  

CAPACITY INVESTMENT SCHEME  

We currently have a pipeline of renewable energy projects that when combined, would produce at least 45 GW - around two thirds of what’s in the grid today.   

We’ve boosted the wind and solar capacity in our power system by more than 40 per cent, compared to what it was when we came to office. 

We're making sure that continues, by: 

• frontloading investment in new renewable energy infrastructure through our Capacity Investment Scheme, or CIS; and
•  reducing the roadblocks that make timely delivery of new projects challenging under Renewable Energy Transformation Agreements that we’ve negotiated with NSW, Victoria, South Australia, WA, the ACT and Tasmania.  

I expected the CIS to work well. It’s working even better than I expected. 

This year we tendered for 6.6GW of new clean, reliable renewable generation and storage. We received bids for nine times more than we asked for.  

Nine times more.   

What this tells me, is that the pipeline from companies wanting to build good quality renewable projects is very strong. 

We want to keep it that way.  

The CIS tenders are due to finish in late 2027.   

Which is why we’ve asked some of Australia's leading energy market experts to investigate reforms to the national electricity wholesale market in the years following.  

This reform will be about bringing even more cheap, clean, reliable renewable energy into the system… 

About planning a system for the 2030s that will be affordable, reliable, and bring emissions down…. 

About not putting all our eggs in the coal-fired-power-generation-basket when we’ve been told by those coal generators that they plan to retire their assets… 

And about not putting our eggs into the nuclear basket when the experts say there’s no way nuclear could generate a single watt of electricity before the early 2040s at best.  

Last year, the Authority recommended we accelerate the rollout of network infrastructure to support the deployment of large-scale renewable energy projects, but working collaboratively with state and territory counterparts.  

We did.   

The $20 billion Rewiring the Nation program, which is the same scheme the Coalition wants to cancel, will make a significant contribution towards this.  

We also agree with the CCA’s recommendation this year to speed up the connection approvals process to get more clean, cheap, reliable renewables into the grid faster.  

Which is why we’ve allocated more than $10 million to help this happen.  

All these components are crucial to deliver the energy Australia needs by 2030 and beyond, while materially reducing emissions.  

Conversely, suggestions that Australia should turn its back on advancements such as these, and revert to a system dominated by fossil fuels while waiting for a nuclear power technology never before deployed in Australia, will be the nail in the coffin for Australia reaching net zero by 2050.  

As the CCA has said, “waiting for new, better, cheaper technologies is tantamount to choosing to continue to emit.”  
 
THE NUCLEAR FURPHY OF NET ZERO  

The notion that nuclear energy in Australia is a serious solution to decarbonise by 2050, is a dangerous furphy.  

It does not survive contact with reality: 

Pausing policies that are currently lowering emissions, in favour of ramping up policies that increase emissions, will not deliver Net Zero.  

Nuclear power generation commencing in the 2040s, less than a decade before we are due to meet the target, is not a solution or antidote to the increase in emissions from extending fossil fuels in the interim.  

If it were to be, it would need to be rolled out on such a scale as to replace almost all other emitting technologies.  

That would mean hundreds of nuclear reactors built across the country to keep the lights on, connected by thousands of kilometres of transmission lines.  

Instead, the current scheme proposed by those in Opposition is for just seven plants, with just one to supply all of Western Australia.  

This energy mix, that includes nuclear as the net zero silver bullet, is incompatible with Australia’s net zero ambitions; incompatible with building a Future Made in Australia; and incompatible with the direction of travel we’re seeing around the rest of the world.  

It would see a return to the delay, denial and dysfunction that has already cost Australians.  

MAKING THE MOST OF THE TRANSITION 

Instead, in 2024, we’re making sure Australians will benefit now from the opportunities afforded by emerging net zero industries.  

We passed legislation to establish the Net Zero Economy Authority, so regions, workers and communities are supported to manage the impacts, and share in the benefits, of this transition. 

And our $22.7 billion commitment to a Future Made in Australia will help Australia unlock private investment at scale in net zero industries including renewable hydrogen, local battery and solar panel manufacturing, green metals processing and low carbon liquid fuels.  

This will support long-term, well paid jobs to more than 2 million workers across the economy in everything from trades, to engineering, educators and other professionals.  

And it legislates Community Benefit Principles to guarantee the positive impact flows to communities hosting these new industries. 

Because this shift - that’s already well underway - is as much about creating jobs in the regions as it is about taking climate action, or securing Australia’s place in an uncertain world.   

Governments around the world change. There will be heightened global tensions and geopolitical repositioning.  

We must stay the course through the uncertainty of complex economic and security challenges because we have a window of time in which to act decisively.  

We must continue to act in our national interest – charting an Australian path in this global journey.  

This much is clear from the scientists and the energy and industry experts. We listen to these experts.

They tell us this decade will be critical for our energy grid. 

Critical for the climate. 

And critical if we want to position Australia as a powerhouse in the new global net zero economy.  

The course of this decade will be shaped by the choice the Australian people make in the next six months. 

It is a clear choice because as the Climate Change Authority’s report shows, and as is evident from our response to it, we have made foundational and impactful shifts in the past two and a half years to put Australia on the right track.  

We are doing the work, and that work is delivering positive change.  
 
WHAT WE’VE DELIVERED 

Mr Speaker, we are making progress towards a healthier, more secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia.  

How resilient we are to climate change and the impacts of climate change; how much we can reduce our emissions; and how comprehensive we can make Australia’s circular economy will continue to be measured as part of keeping Australia on track to decarbonise by 2050.  

In 2023 we commissioned the CCA to undertake a separate, independent, technical assessment of how this country’s key sectors can move towards decarbonisation.  

That’s informed our work on this, and is underpinning our national  roadmap to reach Net Zero, which is progressing well.  

Our revised carbon crediting scheme and reformed Safeguard Mechanism are central to this.  

Supported by $621 million in funds allocated this year to keep industry thriving as it transforms its processes, our projections, as well as the Authority’s progress report, show the Safeguard mechanism is performing better than expected.  

By 2040, more than half a billion tonnes of emissions will be cut onsite across our largest facilities.  

When combined with offsets for the hardest to abate emissions this reaches 900 million tonnes by 2040.  

200 Mt of abatement will happen this decade, equivalent to taking two-thirds of the nation’s cars off the road.

We’re also working directly to reduce transport emissions. 

In March, the Albanese Government did what others had tried – and failed – to do for twenty years: legislated Australia’s first New Vehicle Efficiency Standard.  

It will reduce emissions from new cars by 60 per cent, and from light commercial vehicles by 50 per cent, over the next six years.  

It also incentivises the market to offer drivers more choice of electric and plug in hybrids, as well as better fuel-efficient models across the board. 

Wherever I travel, I hear people talking about their plans to buy a new EV or hybrid as their next car. 

This is important.  

Communities and households have a big role to play in reaching net zero, and they are taking action in record numbers.  

Which is why it’s particularly good news for households with solar and EV’s that Standards Australia has now enabled vehicle-to-grid charging, or reverse charging, in Australia for the first time.  

The effectively transforms a car into a household battery on wheels.  

It’s just one way we’re helping turn energy consumers into energy prosumers, saving money on their bills, reducing pressure on our grids, and helping to bring emissions down. 

We’ve distributed nearly $300 million across states to make social housing more energy efficient, including through adding solar panels to apartment buildings. 

We’ve implemented the $100 million Community Energy Upgrades Fund to help councils cut emissions and reduce bills through energy efficiency and new solar for community buildings – everything from local halls to sports facilities.  

And we’ve allocated nearly $56 million to help more than 2,400 small and medium businesses to do the same.  

It’s why we agree in principle to the Authority’s recommendation to make full use of our distribution networks, the local poles and wires, and commercial and industrial facilities, to host more renewable electricity generation and storage going forward, at that consumer level.  

We’re already doing some of that, supporting increased storage in the distribution network through the Community Batteries for Household Solar program.  

In the past year we’ve been to suburbs from Narara on the Central Coast of New South Wales, to Magill in South Australia, to open some of the more than 400 new batteries this program is delivering.  

And to coordinate all this, we’ve set out Australia’s first Consumer Energy Roadmap.
 
This is the next big reform for the energy system, making sure that those consumers who have energy resources at their disposal are able to be in control of those resources to get maximum benefit out of it for themselves and also for the grid.  

But we’re also focused on those Australians who don’t have access to their own resources. This is about them as much as about the households with rooftop solar.  

Because no one should miss out on the benefits of the energy revolution.  

LOOKING FORWARD TO A CLEANER, BETTER FUTURE 

I’m happy to admit I believe there is cause for quiet optimism.  

We hear a lot from some in the media about how hard this transformation is.  

So hard, in fact, that we should give up.  

They don’t back a Future Made in Australia.  

They – including some in this Parliament - advocate for failure because failure keeps Australia stuck in the past.  

It is increasingly obvious that to hope for failure is a ruse to protect the status quo.  

We want more for Australia.  

And we are putting everything in place to make it happen.  

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges. I am acutely aware of them all. But the numbers now show our plan is working. 

Mr Speaker, there are those who always call on the Government to do more.  

And there are those who call for much, much less.  

To stop the direction of travel we’re now on.  

Reverse the positive impacts we’ve had in the past two and a half years. 

Cut Australia’s growth opportunities off at the knees. 

They want to shut us off from the rest of the world; to jeopardise the future prosperity of our businesses and industry.  

We are a trading nation. Our wealth and success has been determined by what we’ve been able to sell. And we’ve had a lot of buyers.  

We don’t want that to change. In fact, we want more.  

Getting this right – and we’re on the right track already – ensures the flow on effect for households and workers in the coming years will be significant.  

Because we are starting to see a shift in what our trading partners want to buy.  

We are seeing opportunities that we need to capitalise on, as countries around us race to capitalise on those very same opportunities.  

As the Climate Change Authority recognises it is a global contest to dominate green technologies; to access green resources, including critical minerals.

This is a race we want to win, because we are seeing the benefit of building capabilities at home in new industries.  

Not just because it’s good for the climate.  

But because it’s also good for our national interest.  

Good for our security - economic and international.  

And most of all, good for Australians.