ESG Snapshot: Issue 56

This week's highlights include:

• Regional CCS hubs. Companies interested in developing regional CCS hubs have received federal greenhouse gas assessment permits.
• REZ inquiry. A NSW parliamentary committee has launched a new inquiry into the impact of renewable energy zones.
• EPA climate survey. The NSW EPA has released the results of a climate change survey of all its licence holders.
• Transmission trio. One major transmission project has received EPBC approval, and referrals for two others are open for comment.
• More time. A Senate committee inquiring into the Nature Positive bills has had its reporting deadline extended.
• Composting rules. New composting facilities in Queensland will have to meet tougher odour control requirements.

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In a move that could pave the way for regional CCS hubs, the federal government has issued greenhouse gas assessment permits to deepC Store (Australia) Pty Ltd and Azuli (Australia) Pty Ltd, as well as to InCapture Pty Ltd, SK Earthon Australia Pty Ltd, and Carbon CQ Pty Ltd.

The two consortiums are both interested in establishing hubs that provide carbon storage for the region, as well as for domestic emitters.

Azuli is a UK-based CCS specialist, and deepC Store is based in Perth. Their permits are for greenhouse gas acreages in the Bonaparte and Browse basins off the WA coast.

Azuli and deepC Store have entered into a study agreement with Japan's J-Power, to develop a full value chain project shipping liquified CO2 from locations in Japan and Australia to floating storage and injection facilities in Australian waters.

SK Earthon is a South Korean oil and gas company, which is developing its CCS business, while Carbon CQ is an Australian-based CCS consultancy, and InCapture is a Perth-based carbon storage project developer.

InCapture has a 75% stake in the North West Shelf potential CCS project, with SK Earthon having 20%, and Carbon CQ 5%.

The federal government has also issued two greenhouse gas assessment permit to Beach Energy.

DCCEEW has released the Supervising Scientist's assessment of Energy Resource Australia's 2023 closure plan for the Ranger uranium mine, which notes that Rio Tinto-owned ERA now expects major rehabilitation work to be completed by 2035.

This is significantly beyond the 2026 date originally written into legislation, and is "a more realistic timeframe", the Supervising Scientist's assessment says.

The assessment notes that ERA now expects rehabilitation to cost more than the $2.2 billion that the company had originally estimated.

The federal government has given EPBC approval for NSW's Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) transmission project, which will connect renewable energy generation and storage projects within the REZ to the national electricity network.

The project has previously received $490 million in finance from the Rewiring the Nation Fund.

Meanwhile, the federal government has invited comment on an EPBC referral for the NSW component of the Victoria-NSW Interconnector West project, known as VNI West.

It has also invited public comment on APA Group's referral of the East Pilbara network stage 1 project, which will establish a new transmission line connecting APA's Port Hedland gas-fired power station and its 45MW Port Hedland solar farm and 35MW/36.7MWh battery project, to De Grey's proposed Hemi gold project.

APA says in the referral that future stages of the East Pilbara network would enable the transmission of electricity from APA's inland renewable hub projects.

The federal government has also invited comment on ACEN Australia's proposed 600MW Birriwa solar farm in NSW, which would also have a 600MW/1,200MWh battery energy storage system.

A Senate committee inquiry into the Nature Positive bills has delayed its reporting date from 8 August to 19 August.

The federal government has established an expert advisory group to provide advice on reducing the impacts of climate change on the nation's health.
 
The Climate and Health Expert Advisory Group, which will be chaired by assistant health minister Ged Kearney, will also support implementation of Australia's first National Health and Climate Strategy, which was launched at COP28.

DCCEEW has released a training package is now available under the Carbon Farming Outreach Program to help farmers and land managers reduce greenhouse gas emissions and store carbon.

Meanwhile, four more feed additive projects have been awarded grants under the Methane Emissions Reduction in Livestock (MERiL) research and development program.

New reports:

• Energy Networks Australia has released a report titled Getting smarter with the grid, which recommends allowing distribution networks to play a greater role in grid decarbonisation. Recommendations including allowing distribution networks to establish and operate local energy hubs.
• ERM, WBCSD, and the Forest Investor Alliance have released a report on Natural climate solutions for the voluntary carbon market: A guide for companies and financial institutions.
• A new survey of Australian business, commissioned by Schneider Electric, has found 70% agreed that sustainable transformation provides a competitive edge, down from 77% last year. Similarly, the percentage who consider renewable energy provides an economic advantage to Australia has softened from 82% last year, to 76% this year.
• In a new Quarterly Essay titled Highway to Hell, climate scientist Joëlle Gergis discusses the world's and Australia's efforts to combat climate change.
• Repeated mass coral bleachings, driven by high ocean temperatures, are threatening the survival of coral colonies which are the backbone of the Great Barrier Reef, concludes a new study published in Nature.

Four new grants have been awarded under the Saving Native Species grant program, with the largest grant of $1.6 million going to Birdlife Australia.

Statutory development - composting facilities. New and expanding composting facilities located within four kilometres of a residential zone that receive odorous waste will be required to have in-vessel or enclosed processing, under regulatory changes.

The state government has approved the development of the 436.5MW Tarong West Wind farm, which will be located about 30 kilometres south-west of Kingaroy, in the Southern Queensland REZ.

The 97-turbine wind farm is being developed by global renewable energy developer RES, in conjunction with Stanwell.

A new community information centre will be established in Gladstone to coordinate hydrogen industry events and build awareness of the opportunities associated with the growth of the clean energy sector.

The Gladstone region is currently home-base for around half of Queensland's 50-plus registered hydrogen projects.

The state government has released a new Regional Transformation Strategy for central Queensland.

In a move welcomed by the waste and recycling industry, a parliamentary committee inquiring into a government vaping Bill has called for measures to support their safe disposal.

State Parliament has launched an inquiry into the impact of Renewable Energy Zones on rural and regional communities and industries.

The inquiry will examine matters including compensation, fire risk, alternatives to large-scale wind and solar, and community consultation.

The EPA has released the results of a survey of all its licence holders, which was carried out to assess their carbon emissions, and where EPA assistance and regulatory intervention could be useful.

The survey found:

• about 40% of licensees do not have a dedicated person or group responsible for managing climate change issues.
• about 50% have quantified their greenhouse gas emissions.
• about 25% have an emissions reduction plan that applies to their facility.
• less than 40% have carried out a climate change risk assessment.
• less than 20% have identified measures to adapt to climate change.
• less than 10% have an adaptation plan.

A NSW parliamentary committee inquiry into beneficial and productive post-mining land use conducted one hearing last week, and will hold another today.

The EPA has released its strategic plan for 2024 to 2029.

Since European colonisation, 29 million hectares (54%) of the forests and woodlands that once existed in NSW have been destroyed, and a further nine million hectares have been degraded, according to new research from the Australian National University.

The state government has placed on public exhibition a proposal by Coombes Property Group and KLF Group for a construction and demolition waste transfer station in Botany that would accept up to 300,000 tonnes of waste annually.

The state government's Water for the Environment program has released its annual environmental water priority statements for the 2024–25 water year, with a focus on preserving critical habitats for native fish and water-dependent wildlife.

Grant opportunity - plastics. The NSW EPA is inviting applications for funding through its Plastics Research Program, with grants of between $250,000 and $500,000 on offer. Applications close on 5 September.

Open consultations:

• Renewable fuels. The state government has released a report on Opportunities for a renewable fuel industry in NSW, which canvasses views on the merits of targets and mandates. Comments are due by 30 August.

Gerard Brody has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the Essential Services Commission. 

Brody is a former CEO of the Consumer Action Law Centre, and has served as Chair of the Community Legal Centres Australia, and as a director for the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria.

Up to 59% of discarded lithium-ion cells from small cordless appliances had retained more than 80% of their capacity, which means they could be reused elsewhere before recycling, according to new state government funded research.

Consultation - climate information. The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action is seeking feedback on Victoria's Future Climate Tool, which was released in 2021 to provide climate information to help inform decision-making.

The tool, which was developed by the state government and CSIRO and provides local-scale climate projections data for Victoria out to the 2090s, will be updated based on the feedback. Comments are due by 6 September.

Open consultations:

• Renewables and the grid. VicGrid has released draft Victorian transmission plan guidelines and a renewable energy zone study area map, with comments due by 25 August.

The state government has welcomed news that Marinus Link Pty Ltd has signed a contract with Prysmian PowerLink to design, manufacture, and install stage 1 of the Marinus Link interconnector.

Statutory development - Tasmanian Development Board. With the support of the Labor opposition, the Legislative Assembly has passed the Tasmanian Development Amendment Bill 2024, which will significantly increase the value of projects that the Tasmanian Development Board can support.

The Bill will enable the Board to co-invest in projects worth up to $35 million.

Tasmania's Climate Change Office has released the state's 2024 Greenhouse gas emissions report, which provides data for 2022.

Winners of this year's SA Climate Leaders awards include the City of Mitcham, which was awarded a $10,000 prize by the Premier's Climate Change Council for its Community Renewable Energy Program.

Electrolux received the large business and industry award for its new energy-efficient electric furnace, which is used to fire enamel onto the insides of ovens.

The new furnace, which has replaced a gas-powered furnace, is the first of its type to be installed within the Electrolux Group and the project will be used as a template for Electrolux plants globally.

Open consultations:

• Planning for decarbonisation. The Department of the Premier and Cabinet has released a draft State Development Coordination and Facilitation Bill, designed to ensure the regulatory and planning system is fit-for-purpose for the net-zero transition. Comments are due by 31 August.

A proposed Maitland-Karratha-Burrup transmission line could be the first Western Australian project to attract concessional finance from the Commonwealth's Rewiring the Nation fund, according to WA Energy, Environment and Climate Action Minister Reece Whitby.

The transmission line would link renewable energy generation in the Maitland Strategic Industrial Area with Karratha and major Pilbara projects.

WorkSafe is conducting safety inspections of waste and recycling facilities in the state, prompted by the industry's significant safety challenges.

Current international carbon market methods for earning carbon credits from renewable energy projects aren't high integrity, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has decided.

The ICVCM concluded the methods fail to meet additionally requirements because they aren't sufficiently rigorous in assessing whether the projects would have gone ahead without the incentive of carbon credit revenue.

The eight methodologies account for about 236 million unretired credits, which make up 32% of the voluntary carbon market.

ICVCM executives have urged the development of more stringent renewable energy methods, so that projects can be encouraged in places where there are still significant barriers.

According to news service Climate Home, major international carbon credit registries like Verra and Gold Standard stopped accepting new grid-connected renewables projects in 2019, with the exception of those located in least-developed countries (LDCs), where establishing these projects is still difficult.

However, pre-existing renewable energy activities continue to generate a sizeable chunk of all the credits available on the registries, Climate Home says.

Verra, which manages the world's largest voluntary carbon market program, said the rejected methods date from the Kyoto Protocol era, and it will updated methods to ICVCM for re-assessment.

New research from the University of Oxford makes the case for establishing a 'Carbon Removal Budget', which would quantify how much carbon removal is economically and technologically available.

A Carbon Removal Budget would complement the existing concept of a Carbon Budget, which quantifies how much greenhouse gas can be emitted.

International think-tank E3G has published a report on investment treaties that could potentially impede efforts to achieve net zero because they contain "investor-state dispute settlement" (ISDS) provisions that allow special types of legal challenges.

The report notes that Australia is facing an ISDS case for not granting a coal mining lease, based on grounds including the carbon emissions associated with the coal produced by the mine. The Singapore-based company, owned by Clive Palmer, is claiming damages of A$41 billion. 

A new report by the World Benchmarking Alliance,  which assesses more than 800 major companies, concludes that only 5% have assessed the impact of their operations on nature, and under 1% have assessed their dependencies on nature.

The report also examines company efforts to reduce the use of plastics, and to
better manage their use of water.

Agricultural carbon markets are under-appreciated and under-developed, but carbon farming might change that, according to new research from Bloomberg BNEF.

Agricultural carbon credits made up just over 1% of the 1.7 billion credits issued in the voluntary carbon market in 2022. However BloombergNEF estimates that carbon farming could produce $13.7 billion of carbon credits annually by 2050.

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