ESG Snapshot: Issue 67

This week's highlights include:

• What Queensland's new government has planned. LNP statements to Parliament about recent climate laws give insights into its likely approach.
• PFAS. Revised drinking water standards will set new PFAS standards, and a new federally-backed project will pyrolyse biosolids to treat PFAS.
• Bigger energy auction. The next rounds of the Capacity Investment Scheme will be significantly larger than originally planned.
• CO2 pipeline exemption. The NT government is considering introducing an exemption regime, so projects like a CO2 pipeline wouldn't have to comply with existing legal requirements.
• Storage targets. The NSW government has introduced an energy storage Bill.
• Landmark recycling plan. Victoria has released a state-wide recycling infrastructure plan.
• AGL's water pitch. AGL is seeking up to 35GL of surface water annually so it can remediate its Loy Yang coal mine, when its power station closes.
• Company news. Company news includes a Santos court case, climate action data on 22 Australian companies, and SunCable progress.

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The National Health and Medical Research Council has released draft revised drinking water guidelines, which contain revised health-based limits for four types of PFAS. Comments are due by 22 November.

The federal government has awarded $3 million to a project that will build and operate a demonstration-scale pyrolysis plant to destroy PFAS in biosolids from wastewater plants.

Other grants provided under the latest funding round of the CRC Projects scheme include $3 million to test a fully integrated process for the fabrication, transport, installation of an offshore wind turbine.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has announced the next round of auctions under the Capacity Investment Scheme will be significantly expanded.

"We originally planned that the next two tender rounds would call for 2GW of dispatchable renewable power and 4GW of renewable energy generation," the Minister told an AFR Summit.

"I’m announcing today that this auction will now be for 4GW of dispatchable power and 6GW of renewable generation," he said.

Market briefs will be released shortly and the tender process will open in mid-November.

NGER emissions and energy reports for FY24 must be submitted to the Clean Energy Regulator by this Thursday. 

The Department of Industry Science and Resources is inviting tenders to recycle the 274 metre-long Northern Endeavour floating production storage and offtake (FPSO) vessel, and to dispose of hazardous waste from the vessel.

The Northern Endeavour was originally operated by Woodside, which sold it to a small company that then went into liquidation.

The federal government has made public CLARA Energy's EPBC referral for the project Rosedale hydrogen facility, which would be built near Wagga.

It has also made public the referral for Spark Renewables' Wattle Creek solar farm, which would be located on the NSW Southern Tablelands.

Meeting on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa, Australian PM Anthony Albanese and UK PM Kier Starmer have agreed to negotiate an Australia–UK Climate and Energy Partnership.

The partnership will focus on the development and accelerated deployment of renewable energy technologies, and will also "build upon the two countries' long-standing cooperation on international climate action, including on renewable energy and climate finance".

Meanwhile, the two leaders also announced six grant recipients under the Australia-UK Renewable Hydrogen Innovation Partnership Program.

The government-commissioned review of carbon leakage (which includes an assessment of the feasibility of an Australian Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism), which was due to report in September, is yet to report.

The federal government has appointed Arek Sinanian as a member of its advisory Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee.

A new guide titled Renewables that are good for nature, people and your business has been released by the Business Renewables Centre-Australia, ERM Energetics and WWF Australia.

Australia's infrastructure sector has released a new consultation paper titled Defining infrastructure net zero.

The consultation is being undertaken through a new Infrastructure Net Zero taskforce, which has members including the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council, the Infrastructure Sustainability Council, and the Green Building Council of Australia.

The paper notes that about 70% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are directly attributable to, or influenced by the infrastructure sector. 

The Future Fund is a top 10 shareholder in Woodside Energy, Santos and Whitehaven Coal, and has not supported any climate-related shareholder proposal at these three companies since 2021, says a new analysis by Market Forces.

The Clean Energy Council has announced the 10 recipients of the 2024 Chloe Munro Scholarship for Transformational Leadership. They will join the network of 36 women who have been awarded this scholarship since its first round in 2021. 

Defence, which is Australia's largest energy user, has released a Net zero strategy. The strategy notes that "climate change is a national security issue", and says Defence will aim to source 100% of its grid-provided electricity from renewables by 2030.

Open consultations:

• Carbon market infrastructure. The Clean Energy Regulator is seeking feedback on its proposed exchange trading model for ACCUs, and its proposed new units and certificates registry. Comments are due by 22 November.
• Energy efficiency. DCCEEW is inviting views on a Regulation Impact Statement on a proposal to impose stricter GEMS energy efficiency requirements on distribution transformers. Comments are due by 6 December.
• PFAS. Submissions to a Senate select committee inquiry into PFAS are due by 19 December.

Award opportunity. Nominations are now being accepted for the 36th annual Banksia sustainability awards. Entries must be submitted by 6 December.

The LNP's victory in Saturday's election will put the state's renewable energy targets at risk, based on its approach to Labor climate legislation introduced earlier this year.

In April, the LNP supported Labor's Clean Economy Jobs Bill, which mandates an emissions reduction target of 75% on 2005 levels by 2035, and net-zero by 2050.

"Our decision to support the targets ... is significant and it has been carefully considered," Sam O'Connor, LNP environment spokesperson, told Parliament at the time.

But the LNP's attitude to the renewables Bill, which went through Parliament on the same day, was different, with the then Opposition party arguing that renewables targets should be reviewed every two years.

Even so, LNP energy spokesperson Deb Frecklington at the time acknowledged in Parliament the importance of Queensland's active involvement in the energy transition.

"We do not want to miss the once-in-a-generation chance to create new careers and keep our brightest kids in the bush," she said. "We do not want those energy careers going across the border or to another country."

Notably, in October last year, the Queensland parliament did pass on a bipartisan basis, the Gas Supply and Other Legislation (Hydrogen Industry Development) Amendment Bill, which expands the scope of legislation regulating the transport of petroleum and fossil gas to encompass hydrogen and other renewable gases. 

Meanwhile, The LNP has also committed to establish a "public health inquiry" to examine the impacts on Ipswich residents of noxious odours from the Swanbank landfill site.

Statutory development - long duration storage. Climate Change Minister Penny Sharpe has introduced the Energy Amendment (Long Duration Storage and Investment) Bill 2024.

The Bill retains the minimum objective of 16GWh of long-duration storage to be constructed by 2030. It builds on this to establish a new long-duration storage infrastructure objective of an additional 12GWh by 2034.

"Currently the National Electricity Market has just over 3GW of utility-scale storage. The energy market operator's Integrated System Plan shows the national market will need at least 15GW of additional utility-scale storage by 2030," the Minister told the Legislative Council.

The state government is expanding the functions of the Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW, empowering it to provide information and a dispute resolution service to landholders and community members affected by new renewable energy and transmission infrastructure.

NSW Health is establishing a committee to assist with its response to a parliamentary inquiry into coal ash repositories.

NSW Health has commissioned a review of environmental data to determine whether people living close to power stations and coal ash dams are exposed to potentially harmful chemicals through air, water, soil or local fish and seafood.

The committee will help facilitate discussions between NSW Health and representatives of local communities.

Open consultations:

• Problematic plastics. Comments on an EPA draft action plan on plastics are due by 4 November.

The state government has finalised the inaugural Victorian Recycling Infrastructure Plan.

The VRIP outlines infrastructure needs and gaps, with the aim of driving innovation and investment to where it is most needed.

Priority areas for investment nominated in the plan include plastics, textiles, e-waste, and organics.

The state government is consulting on an application by AGL to access water for rehabilitation of its Loy Yang coal mine, when its Loy Yang A power station closes in 2035.

AGL has applied for a new bulk entitlement to access up to 35.8 GL of water annually for the water-based rehabilitation of the Loy Yang mine, for a period of 30 years. 

This is slightly lower than the amount that AGL is currently entitled to take for cooling water for the Loy Lang A power station.

The government is also consulting on two related developments. One would amend AGL's existing Loy Yang A generation water entitlement to clarify when power generation stops.

The other would allow Southern Rural Water (as the system manager) to plan for the resulting change in water system operations.

AGL will also seek to extend its separate entitlement to extract about 20GL of groundwater, so that the same amount can be used in mine rehabilitation. The company's groundwater licence will expire in September 2026.

Lenah Game Meats and Sustainable Living Tasmania are the winners of the 2024 EPA sustainability awards.

The EPA has published its latest annual report.

Open consultations:

• Water quality. The EPA is reviewing the state's Environment Protection (Water Quality) Policy, which dates from 2015. Comments are due by 9 December.
• Waste to resources. The EPA has launched a review of the state's Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy, which dates from 2010. Comments are due by 20 December.

On the advice of the Appeals Convenor, Environment Minister Reece Whitby has rejected an appeal against an amendment to Alcoa's licence for bauxite mining near Wagerup.

The amendment allowed it to install a PFAS treatment unit for wastewater, and then to discharge the treated wastewater into a brook.

The Minister held that the treatment and discharge of wastewater would not pose unacceptable risks to surface water and sensitive receptors.

A proposed new "Territory Coordinator" would facilitate approval processes for significant and complex projects, says a consultation paper circulated on a limited basis by the NT government.

The paper says the proposed Territory Coordinator model is similar to Queensland's existing Coordinator-General model, and a similar proposal planned in South Australia.

The paper also proposes the introduction of powers for the Minister to issue "exemption notices" from statutory processes.

"These provisions may be valuable, for example, in circumstances where new technology is proposed that is not provided for or allowed under existing legislation," the paper says.

"Exemption powers could be applied to allow for that technology to be legally used for a specific project, ahead of provisions being updated through legislative reform," it says.

"A hypothetical case may be pipeline transportation of CO2, where a legislative reform process is underway, but which NT legislation does not currently authorise."

The NT Environment Centre, which opted to make the consultation paper public, described the proposals as "profoundly anti-democratic and anti-Territorian".

New listings are in blue.

The UN Environment Programme has released its 2024 Emissions Gap Report.

"Global greenhouse gas emissions set a new record of 57.1Gt in 2023, a 1.3% increase from 2022 levels," the report says.

Countries are still off-track to meet their 2030 pledges, and these pledges are inadequate, it says.

Reports released in conjunction with the COP16 biodiversity talks in Colombia include:

• The nature tech revolution: The tools to move from 'do no harm' to nature to 'nature positive'. Published by the NatureTech Alliance, which has members including ERM.
• Opportunity blossoms: The business of nature recovery - 12 case studies. Published by BloombergNEF.
• State of the blue carbon market. Published by Ecosystem Marketplace, in conjunction with the Katoomba Group. The report notes that one research study concluded that Australia, the US, and Indonesia are the three countries with the largest annual blue carbon sequestration potentials.
• Integrating nature tech: A guide for businesses. Jointly produced by Nature4Climate, the Nature Tech Collective, KPMG, the Climate Collective, and Serena.

Representatives of Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Fiji, which are all members of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative, have released a new report on fossil fuel emissions from Australia, Canada and the UK.

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