NSW Energy Policy and Bushfires

This week saw the climate and energy debate take centre stage as the NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean told a room full of energy experts at the National Smart Energy Summit that he wanted "to end the climate wars and achieve net-zero [carbon] emissions by 2050."

Kean stated at the Summit that he would announce a plan to increase the NSW government’s emissions reduction targets, explaining that the Government must “listen to the scientists and the experts, coming up with a plan to make sure that NSW does its bit to reduce the impacts of climate change”.

However, throughout the week, the government’s first priority remained supporting those affected by the bush fires, both on the frontline and in communities. Premier Berejiklian said, "at this time, I think the community can appreciate that I'm focusing on making sure we're doing everything we can to protect property and life."

As part of the announcement the NSW Government has committed to lowering greenhouse gases by 35 per cent by 2030. The commitment, signed off by state cabinet, will bolster NSW's previous target of zero emissions by 2050. Kean stated "We've got to stop making climate change a matter of religion and we've got to start making it a matter of science and the science says that we need to reduce the impact of global warming by 2 degrees and to do that we need to achieve zero emissions by 2050.”

This comes after the NSW Government announced the rewriting of electricity market rules in November to create giant renewable energy zones, investing in hydrogen, and spuring consumers to offset carbon emissions in a landmark policy aimed at shifting the national debate over climate change.

The state government will remove a region centred around Dubbo from the rules governing how investment is approved in the main grid, known as the National Electricity Market (NEM). This will create a 3000-megawatt renewable energy zone, the first coordinated area of its kind in Australia.

The NSW Government's plan, which will require legislation to be passed in 2020, will result in a special corporation auctioning off access rights to the grid, allowing developers certainty that they will be able to deliver their output to the market. The plan was prompted by an inability of the existing planning process to accommodate the increase in new wind and solar farm proposals.

The NSW Government has also set a goal of requiring 10 per cent of the NSW’s gas to come from green hydrogen by 2030.