Interview with Sabra Lane, ABC AM

SABRA LANE: The Federal Energy and Climate Change Minister is Chris Bowen, and he joins us now. Good morning and welcome to AM.

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks, Sabra. Good morning.

SABRA LANE: Consumers will get help with energy payments from tomorrow. You don't anticipate that people will need additional help down the track?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I do anticipate that we're going to need to continue to work with people to reduce their energy bills. So, last year we acted pretty decisively with the coal and gas caps and the rebates, which have seen increases of more than 50 per cent reduce substantially. And for those who receive the rebates, become decreases in many instances. 

But we also had medium and longer term plans, including our $1.7 billion package, to help households and businesses convert to cheaper renewable energy, improve their energy efficiency, as well as, of course, the work we're doing to upgrade and improve the grid to get cheaper renewable energy into the system. So, there's the short term, the medium term and the long term. And we're going to need to continue to work on all of it. But the short term relief does apply from tomorrow. And that was a necessary intervention. Absolutely no doubt about it.

SABRA LANE: The energy market operator, Daniel Westerman, warned last week that the transition to renewable energy just isn't happening fast enough. Can you speed it up?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I agree with him, of course. I've made the point repeatedly from the time we announced it that our 82 per cent target was ambitious, but it's also very achievable. And we have a big pipeline of renewable energy projects and dispatchable renewable energy in the system. But we want to move into final investment decision and we are continuing to roll out policies to achieve that. As late as yesterday, announcing the first of the options under our Capacity Investment Scheme, jointly with Penny Sharpe, the NSW Minister, working together, which will unlock about - almost a gigawatt of dispatchable renewable energy in NSW by 2025. So, together, with rewriting the nation, our transmission policy, together with the certainty and stability we've brought to energy policy after a long period of chaos, and stop start policies which saw four gigawatts of dispatchable energy leave the grid and only one gigawatt come on over the last decade, which has left us in a very difficult position. But we're getting on with the job of that very important transformation.

SABRA LANE: Can you accelerate the decarbonisation? Scientists warn the need to do it is urgent, given more extreme events are happening, like the bushfires now in Northern America and the low sea ice coverage in Antarctica. You worried by that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Of course I am. And I think that underlines why we're doing what we're doing. The opposition says we should pause, and we should stop doing all this. I mean, they actually use that language. After ten years of pause, we're getting on with it. 82 per cent renewables by 2030 is ambitious. We're roughly around a third on average at the moment. And we need to lift that to 82 per cent over the next seven years. That's a big lift, a big job we're doing.

SABRA LANE: Is it possible sorry, to get back to the original point?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yes it is possible -

SABRA LANE: To accelerate.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, the point I'm making, Sabra, is it is already ambitious, but of course, we're doing everything we can to make sure that transition is as fast as it is. But you get plenty of people out there saying, "Oh, it's not possible, it's too ambitious." I don't accept that. But I do accept it's ambitious, but it is also achievable. So, we’re getting on with that. And that 82 per cent renewable energy target across our grids, underpins, in many senses, our 43 per cent emission reduction target, although, of course, we have many other policies dealing with many other sectors as well. But it is ambitious.

SABRA LANE: 20 billion of new transmission lines need to be built during the next decade to cope with this additional renewable energy and the changeover. How will you do that, given that many farmers don't want those transmission lines on their land and people object to them going through national parks?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we're getting on with that as well, of course. We've made funding agreements with NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, which are all very important, and obviously, I'm in discussions with other jurisdictions, we'll have more to say in coming months, but what we call social licence, or that community support is also very important. These are big projects in small communities and we have to work closely with those communities. So, we put out a four point plan to improve engagement with those communities, because I think they're right. I think engagement and consultation with them hasn't been good enough. It needs to be earlier, it needs to be more real, it needs to engage in real community benefit. So, we're doing all that.

We've also working very closely with the Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, Andrew Dyer, about what more can be done. States are doing a good job. NSW, Queensland and Victoria all have compensation packages, if you like, payment plans for landholders which are very large. But I accept it's not all about money, it's also about community engagement. And, yes, communities do have a right for proper engagement and it hasn't been done well enough in the past. So, we have a substantial program of fixing that and improving that, because we want to work with those communities, not against them. Absolutely.

SABRA LANE: Might some coal fired power stations slated for closure in the next couple of years actually have to stay to operate longer? Given also that we've got things like Snowy 2.0 that aren't going to plan, that was supposed to be on track for delivery originally next year, but now it's not looking like it'll be ready until about 2030 and costing closer to 10 billion.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I don't accept the premise about costing. That work is still underway, but certainly there have been substantial delays in Snowy 2.0. '28-29 is the current projected finish date, but no, AEMO has advised me that they don't regard that as needing to change any of the systems underway in our energy grid. But of course, we'll work with energy companies in relation to the most obvious example is Eraring in relation to Origin Energy. They've made it clear that they're not going to leave the grid a day earlier or later than it should for proper grid management. They've indicated 2025 as the likely closure date, but they'll work with the NSW and federal governments to ensure that it's managed smoothly and of course, with AEMO.

But the most important thing there to underpin your question, Sabra, is the first one you asked how do we manage this transition? Which has been, in my view, over the last decade, way too slow, but also way too disorderly, hasn't been properly managed. There have been coal fired power stations which have needed to close because they've reached the end of their natural life. But we haven't had the new dispatchable renewable generation coming on at anywhere near the pace we needed to make that transition smooth. We're fixing that with all the policies we have underway, including the one I announced yesterday and the further announcements we'll make about the states and territories in coming months.

SABRA LANE: Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen thanks for talking to AM.

CHRIS BOWEN: Always a pleasure, Sabra. Good on you.