Joint media conference with US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm

The Hon Chris Bowen MP
Minister for Climate Change and Energy 
 
Jennifer M. Granholm
United States Secretary of Energy 

MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY CHRIS BOWEN: Well, this is an important day. When we're elected, the new Government said we will put climate change as the centre of our long and fruitful alliance with the United States. We've taken the first steps to do so today with this agreement. 
 
Also today there's been an agreement signed between the CSIRO and the National Renewable Laboratory of the United States and this agreement really is the first step to see Australia and the United States working together on key technologies, whether they be hydrogen for long duration storage, which is a key to getting this transition right or many others, and there's a lot of expertise to share. 
 
Secretary Granholm has 17 Laboratories in her department, we have ARENA, CEFC and the CSIRO and we have a lot to learn from each other and work together -with each other, this transformation is enormous with massive opportunities and massive challenges. Better integration of the grid is something we've agreed to work on things which are involved with electric vehicles and how they interact with the grid much much to work on together. And this is the important first step. 
 
Can I say Secretary Granholm what a pleasure it is to have you in Australia in your first visit. Just indulge me to say as a long-term student and lover of the United States politics so I've been a long-time admirer of Secretary Granholm including her tenure as Governor of Michigan, and the magnificent work you did in leading an economic transformation in your home state and dealing with the difficult issues of economic change, and that experience, I think stands you in very good stead for this massive transformation that you have stewardship of in the United States. So, Madam Secretary Jennifer, it's been an absolute privilege and honour to work with you to get this agreement thus far. And it'll be a greater privilege to actually bring it to fruition and I'm looking forward to joining you, in Pittsburgh in a little while to progress further conversations with our international colleagues. And this isn't our only interaction. We'll be interacting with each other again, tonight and tomorrow. But it's really been a great honour to have you here at Sydney Energy Forum so thank you.
 
US SECRETARY OF ENERGY JENNIFER GRANHOLM: Thank you very much. It is an honour to be here. So excited about the trajectory of this new administration and how it aligns so well with what the Biden administration's goals are. None of us can achieve our goals without working together. You've got incredible assets and the resources and technology that we want to learn from. And I know that we have some resources and technology that would benefit Australia as well and I can't tell you how close we are about this partnership. 
 
This, the technologies that we identified here are all technologies that we’ve both been working on separately. Clearly 17 national institutes that we’ve been talking about have been working on some very difficult technology breakthroughs to be able to achieve the goals. For example, the cost of electrolyzers for Green hydrogen, we have a goal of getting the price down to $1 for one kilogram within the decade, for example. Or bringing down the cost of long duration storage by 90% so that we can truly make renewable energy more dispatchable (inaudible). 
 
So those kinds of things, including the grid and resilience there. We’ve got a very old grid, you've got an old grid, as well, we have to both replace existing, as well as expand capacity and make it intelligent. So for all of those reasons, there are technologies that cause components on the grid to speak to one another to be efficient, about where energy is dispatched, in addition to being resilient from extreme weather events, and all of those are issues that we'll be working on as well, in addition to making sure that we have good methane strategies to prevent methane leaks, but also to detect if there are methane leaks as an integral greenhouse gas, so excited about all of that. 
 
JOURNALIST: Australia recently updated its nationally determined contribution under the Paris agreement with a 2030 emissions reduction target of 43%. It's more ambitious than the previous target, but less ambitious than many other comparable nations including America’s 2030 Target. Does the US consider this 43% target a sufficient contribution by Australia to reducing global emissions?
 
SECRETARY GRANHOLM: I think it's an exciting contribution by Australia. I've heard some say that that is a floor and not a ceiling. I have no doubt that this administration, this Australian administration, the new Government is very bullish on being able to achieve that, and potentially more so excited to be able to have partnerships like this, as one example of their intention to go very hard on making sure that we have a clean energy future.
 
JOURNALIST: Is it sufficient Mr Bowen?
 
MINISTER BOWEN: Yes, as I said at the National Press Club, Secretary is 100 per cent right and I refer you to the language we used in our NDC to the UNFCCC, which pointed out that we certainly hope and expect that with the whole of society effort across Australia we can do even better. 43% is our target but of course if we can do better that'd be a very good thing. Okay, Charles, last question. 
 
JOURNALIST: To both of you, how much do you see China as a rival in the race to green energy?
 
SECRETARY GRANHOLM: I worry that China has bigfooted a lot of the technology and supply chains that could end up making us vulnerable if we don't develop our own supply chains and so therefore, from an energy security point of view, it is imperative that nations that share the same values, develop our own supply chains, not just for the climate, which of course is very important, but for our own energy security. We've seen what happens when we rely too much on one entity for a source of fuel and we don't want that to happen. So for to diversify those energy sources and to link up with partners is all part of our energy security. 
 
MINISTER BOWEN: I agree with the Secretary and that's in large part what this forum is about, supply chains working together, the Secretary and I have had good discussions about our respective interests in improving manufacturing and supply chains and that's good for our own economies. It's good for national security as well to have supply chains amongst ourselves and amongst friends and allies.