Faster climate action means more choice, lower bills, safer future
The Liberal and Nationals have taken a step backwards on climate.
They’re abandoning climate science in favour of spending our taxes on old coal clunkers and more gas.
Instead of spending public money on old coal and more gas, why not support making and storing our own energy with rooftop solar and batteries.
Act now! Slash your energy bills with solar and home batteries
The home battery rebate program has been wildly successful.
Hear from experts and a panel of homeowners discussing their choices, situations and results.
Every household is different. Learn more about the sort of battery and tariff that is best for you!
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Save money with solar and a home battery!
Three different homes, three different solutions.
Even taking into account interest, with a fully electric home you save over $4000/yr
Click on the Rewiring Australia image to enlarge for more detail.
Dumping net zero means no plan for affordable energy, no plan to keep us safe
- Climate Council: Abandoning “Australia’s net zero target is a dangerous retreat from reality that would unleash more climate pollution and higher power bills.”
- The Guardian: Coal would be “added to the Capacity Investment Scheme”, and a Coalition government would make targeted investments in “fossil-fuel technology”.
Going electric would save households over $4000 per year!
For a similar public spend as keeping our existing 20GW of old coal in the grid for an extra decade we could electrify all Australian households with a mix of loans and subsidies, radically slashing our energy bills.
Abandoning climate action
With no target and no credible pathway LNP offers us a more dangerous future
Climate Council: LNP’s “climate sabotage” is “deadly negligence that would leave Australians facing more fires, floods and heatwaves.”
- Abandoning net zero would be an “enormous risk to realising the broad benefits of the global clean energy transition, deterring investment in renewables and green exports”.
- In signing the Paris Agreement, countries agree to “progressively strengthen” their contributions – leaked talking points state Liberal MPs have been told “to argue dumping net zero does not conflict with Paris agreement.”
Liberals climate policy driven by the Nationals
Sussan Ley has had to follow the Nationals move to dump their climate policy in order to avoid another spill:
- Amy Remeikis, The Australia Institute: “This is about individual power and survival. Barnaby Joyce was all but crowing from the parliament flag pole this week at how he had dragged the Nationals, once again, to his position, which has then had the Liberals all but follow suit. The Nationals have been openly dragging the Liberals around since the Turnbull years.”
- Paul Sakkal, Brisbane Times: “Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has bought a reprieve from a leadership coup by abandoning Australia’s legislated climate targets and pledging to keep coal plants online,”
No plan to reduce climate pollution
Liberals have agreed to scrap reaching net zero emissions by 2050
Climate Council: Abandoning “Australia’s net zero target is a dangerous retreat from reality that would unleash more climate pollution“
- ABC: The Liberals have “decided to repeal Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction legislation”
- Walking away from net zero aligns with more than 3°C of global heating says the Climate Council
- Phys.org: Sussan Ley said “Energy affordability” would “take precedence over government action to stop climate change”
- Climate Council: new key science report in Nature warns of ‘overshoot’ and irreversible changes – climate action must be “an all-out sprint”.
New policy would raise our emissions
Climate Council: “Abandoning net zero is aligned with global temperature rise well above 3°C. Australia would face a future of relentless disasters and economic upheaval.”
- 4x severe/extreme heatwave days
- 1.5M Australians exposed to coastal flooding by 2050
- Double extreme fire days
- Vast regions becoming uninsurable
No plan for affordable energy
Solar plus storage is cheapest form of energy
Instead of spending public money on more coal and gas, households would benefit from support for panels and batteries
- CSIRO’s definitive GenCost 2024/25 report: “For the seventh year in a row, renewables have the lowest cost range of any new electricity generation.”
- The Climate Council: “Energy from wind and solar is on average half the price of energy from coal and gas.”
We risk higher power bills
- Guardian: A new 500 plus page report from the pretty conservative International Energy Agency states that a more ambitious emissions reduction scenario compared to a steady as you go scenario would lower energy bills by 75%
“In the NZE scenario, faster efficiency gains and a more rapid shift away from fossil fuels – through heat pumps and EVs – more than compensate for higher electricity spending, even when the effects of phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies are taken into account.”
“Although this scenario requires higher upfront spending on new equipment and efficiency improvements, it leads to a clear decline in total household energy bills in advanced economies.”
No plan to keep us safe
Abandoning climate action “would spell disaster for Australia’s climate” says Climate Council
Dumping net zero with no effective plan to reduce emissions would expose Australians to more fires, floods and heatwaves
- Australians would face 7x more disaster recovery spend, and 230% higher heat wave deaths in Melbourne
- Australia is vulnerable to increasing climate damage from fires, droughts and floods, according to the CSIRO’s State of the Climate report.
NCRA: We are on track for much higher climate risks
The NCRA paints a grim picture, but life will be much worse unless we act fast
Key findings from the National Climate Risk Assessment include (at our likely trajectory of 3°C):
- 4x times heatwaves
- Up to 5x deaths from extreme heat
- 1.5m more people a risk of coastal flooding
- Half a trillion hit on property values by 2050
Abandoning climate action leaves our future in very dangerous place.
Risks map: check out your suburb
On in 23 properties is already at high climate risk
Check out Climate Council’s interactive map to learn about risks in your local area.
Prolonging coal and expanding gas puts our neighbourhoods at risk.
Public funds for more coal and gas
Government support for fossil fuels is a backwards step
If the aim is to lower energy bills why not support household and businesses directly with rooftop solar and onsite batteries?
- NSW Eraring 2GW 2 year extension to cost $450 million, Queensland will extend coal to another 11 years to 2046 including Callide (1.5GW), Gladstone (1.68GW) and Tarong (1.4GW)
- LNP policy is stated to include nuclear – Hinkley C (3GW) went from $A35billion to $A90 billion
- For around the same cost as keeping our 20GW of coal plants open for another ten years or for less than the cost of one large scale nuc every household could add panels, electric appliances and one EV – $4000/yr savings ($40-50bn public loan/subsidy scheme returning $1,170 billion in savings) Electrify Australia.
Should the taxpayer carry coal or gas extension costs?
- The Australia Institute: “When governments subsidise fossil fuels—coal, gas, diesel, petrol—they not only waste public money, they also make climate change worse.” In FY23/24 Australia subsidies fossil fuels $14.5bn. “This is equal to $27,581 for every minute of every day of the year, more than is spent on the army or the air force.”
- The diesel fuel rebate is making a significant contribution to coal expansion, for instance the lifetime cost of the rebate at $1.3bn has been calculated to be greater than the whole cost of construction of Whitehaven’s coal mine expansion.
Should the taxpayer subsidise gas expansion?
Despite our Paris commitments, our government still is promoting gas expansion. Currently, including exports, Australia contributes a whopping 4.5% of global emissions, continuing to damage our climate.
Uncertainty chilling for renewables investment
The Liberals are following the Nationals in boosting coal and gas prospects
Energy investors like bipartisan certainty on climate targets which support renewables projects.
- The Conversation: Labor has set targets and has sector plans for emissions reduction, so the LNP announcement, in theory, should not make much difference, given that the renewables transition is well under way, however it gives cover for lower policy ambition, including in Queensland and WA.
- Renew Economy: “political grandstanding risks undermining the investor confidence needed to build the cheap, clean and reliable power necessary to power Australia and fight global warming”.
- Money is more likely to flow to projects like Betaloo Basin, ostensibly not a carbon bomb (CCS), with proposed fracking set to damage agriculture and remote communities due to water toxicity among other issues.
Why are we having these climate wars? Who stands to gain?
Delaying the clean energy transition increases the profits of coal and gas companies, and implicates those parties and representatives who have been significant fossil donation recipients.
Doubt was the major tactic employed by Exxon and other fossil majors, despite them knowing full well about how their product would place ecosystems, communities and families at risk.
Cleaning up politics
Fossil fuel interests have undue influence over our elected representatives. Political donations and unchecked and undisclosed lobbying activities mean vested interests dominate in Canberra.
- Fossil fuel subsidies in the 2023/2024 year totalled 14.5 billion ($27,581 for every minute of every day)
- Since 2001 every departing resources Minister has gone to work in the fossil fuel sector
- The Australian Medical Association called for “an end to donations from the fossil fuel industry to political parties and for fossil fuel subsidies to be transitioned to renewable energy.”
Slash the cost of energy with renewables, rooftop solar and storage!
Going electric saves on energy bills
A fully electrified home, with solar PV and storage can really slash energy costs
Electric appliances are three to four times more efficient than gas equivalents, and are better for the planet.
- Victorian government: “Converting an existing home with solar panels from gas to electricity can save around $2,000 a year on energy bills”, on top of existing $740 savings from average 6.6kW solar.
- Sustainability Victoria recommends switching to electric reverse cycle heating and cooling for the biggest saving and adding heat pump electric hot water and induction cooking to eliminate your gas bill
- Rewiring Australia: a fully electrified home with one EV can save $4100 per year including loan repayments at 4%. Lower costs from the get go.
Rooftop solar and batteries are very popular
Over four million households have installed solar PV
The ABC says that “the Coalition says it will expand the use of gas as it prepares for nuclear power in the late 2030s and curb the rollout of wind and solar” with gas use to go up five times.
Clean Energy Council: households are now playing a leading role in creating energy, generating 10% of Australia’s electricity.
Solar Vic: The Victorian government is supporting low income properties to install solar, more than halving their power bills.
The cost of renewables and storage is falling rapidly
The economics of large scale batteries continue to improve rapidly, leading to a “bonanza” with 4GW entering the system in the first half of 2024.
Australia was on track to add 7GW of wind and solar in 2024, around 4 nuclear power stations worth.
- Across the Asia Pacific region: “Renewable energy costs in 2023 were 13% cheaper than conventional coal and are expected to be 32% cheaper by 2030.”
- In most places in the world “power from new renewables is now cheaper than power from new fossil fuels”.
Storage makes sun and wind power available 24/7
Battery storage costs are dropping rapidly
Firmed clean energy has been the most affordable option for the last seven years according to CSIRO, with “overwhelming” demand for “new, low cost and low emissions power” according to Brookfield.
- A judicious mix of solar, wind and short and medium storage can deliver “shaped loads”, perfectly attuned to the needs of businesses and consumers, especially with improved data capacity.
- Hybrid solar farms are starting to offer “power well after sunset“.
- Battery storage can perform grid forming services, taking over from coal power in maintaining frequency and voltage in the grid.
Electrification is a major pathway to a safer future
We can power Australia with clean, affordable renewables
Clean energy is the least cost, fastest way to create energy.
Electrification is the low hanging fruit
Monash University: Household electrification is the low hanging fruit that Australians understand, “taking control of energy costs by switching to cheaper, cleaner electricity. The federal battery rebate proves it. Since launching in July, uptake has surged to five-and-a-half times higher than last year, three times faster than the Australian Energy Market Operator expected. This follows our rooftop solar success, which saw millions of households transform their own energy supply.”
Going electric is better for our health
Moving away from gas to electric appliances reduces respiratory and other diseases
- A child living with gas cooking has a 42% higher chance of getting asthma
- Gas cooking is proven to cause 12% of childhood asthma
- Indoor pollution from burning gas includes chemicals that hurt our cardiac, neurological and respiratory systems, including formaldehyde, NO2, and cancer causing benzene.
Moving past coal and gas
- A new report from IEEFA says that reducing gas demand by going electric would bridge gas shortages.
- Approvals for fracking (banned in Victoria) threaten water security and cultural sites
- Fossil fuel subsidies have risen to $14.5 billion/year, and should be eliminated.
Supporting climate action is key to lower energy costs and a safer future
30% off home batteries with new rebate
Features, size, tariffs – what you need to know
Find out more about how you can take advantage of the new rebate here!
Australia has world beating solar and wind resources
We have massive potential for renewables-led exports.
Accelerating climate action would set Australia up to be a clean energy superpower, transforming manufacturing and exports.
Moving to clean energy will lower costs, increase our resilience, and protect our future.
Further Information
Lighter Footprints information
Going electric and energy efficiency
- Entertaining short video on electrification with home energy expert Tim Forcey
- Got five minutes? Skim info on our Home Batteries info page
- Insulation and draught proofing – fast paced video highlights
- Health benefits of getting off gas – Dr Genevieve Cowie video highlights
Energy
- We can do this! Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute, gives us a rousing call to move faster towards clean energy.
- Renewable energy is unstoppable, over 40% already, is the lowest cost to build and very fast. Find out more
- Delaying renewables and expanding fossil exports – more details on nuclear and CCS here.
Australian Government
- Australian Government news page on the home battery scheme
- CER Cheaper Home Batteries Program page
Solar Victoria
- Solar Victoria page on planning your battery system
- Solar Victoria information page with links to solar panel information and solar hot water, news, case studies, rebates and more
- Solar rebate page – up to $1400 per household, – combined incomes under $210,000 per year
Renew Economy
Electrify Boroondara
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