ESG Snapshot: Issue 77

This week's highlights include:

• Renewables suspension. Using two rarely used powers, Queensland is re-assessing one wind farm, and has suspended assessments for three others.
• Environmental honours. A judge, three high-profile academics, and former Liberal and Green politicians have received Australia Day honours.
• New biodiversity bill. A draft SA biodiversity bill has improving the state of biodiversity as one of its objects.
• Two-year delay. The federal government has given itself more time to prepare changes to the CFI Rule and its parent Act.
• 'Underhand attack'. The Tasmanian government, backed by the federal Opposition, has slammed a proposed new ACCU method.
• Electrolysers and data centres. An EPBC referral shows a huge renewables project will have electrolysers and/or data centres centred in each node.
• Plantings discount. The CEFC is financing a discount loan scheme for farmers who participate in ACCU environmental plantings projects.

ESG Snapshot - powered by the Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia and curated by ESG communications and content consultancy Earthed.

Recipients of 2025 Australia Day honours include NSW Land and Environment Court Chief Judge Brian Preston, AO.

Academics receiving Australia Day honours include solar PV expert ANU Emeritus Professor Andrew Blakers AO, UNSW circular economy expert Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla AO and UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures director Stuart White AM.

Other recipients include former WA Liberal Environment Minister Cheryl Edwardes AO, and former Tasmanian Greens leader, Peg Putt AM.

See the full list here.

The federal government is introducing a $2 billion Green Aluminium Production Credit scheme from FY29, to help aluminium smelters transition to renewable electricity.

Under the scheme, smelters that can show new significant decarbonisation before 2036 can negotiate an emissions-linked credit contract payable per tonne of green aluminium produced for up to 10 years.

Final credit rates will be based on individual facility circumstances and will be dependent on reducing Scope 2 emissions, which for about 85% of emissions from aluminium smelting. 

The scheme will be reviewed in 2030. The government has also committed $1.5 million over three years to help develop international green aluminium standards. This work will inform the final design of the credit scheme.

The federal government has announced an additional $2 billion capital allocation to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

"We expect this additional capital to be particularly important in increasing investment in much-needed renewable energy generation and energy storage projects, which are central to delivering on our national emissions ambitions," said CEFC chief executive Ian Learmonth.

The federal government has deferred the sunsetting of the Carbon Farming Initiative Rule by two years to 1 April 2027.

The CFI Rule provides detailed arrangements for administering the CFI Act and the ACCU Scheme. An explanatory statement says the delay will provide more time to implement remaining responses to the Chubb review, and responses to the Climate Change Authority's 2020 and 2023 reviews of the CFI Act.

The CEFC is committing up to $200 million to allow Rabobank Australia to offer discounted loans for farmers to undertaking Environmental Planting projects under the ACCU scheme.

Through the CEFC support, Rabobank will provide a discount of one percent on its environmental plantings loans, to help ease initial borrowing costs. Rabobank will also contribute a further discount of up to 0.15 percent for these loans.

Meanwhile, the CEFC has also committed $100 million to a new build-to-rent (BTR) strategy managed by AXA IM Alts.

In its initial stages, the strategy is targeting as many as 3,000 fully electric apartments. At least half of them will be offered at a discount to equivalent market rents for means-tested tenants, in key worker employment hubs in major cities.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has welcomed the Governor-General's sign-off of a decision to quadruple the size of the Heard and McDonald Islands Marine Parks, stating that it means Australia now protects more ocean than any other country in the world.

"In 2022, the Albanese Government signed up to an internationally agreed target of protecting 30 per cent of our oceans by 2030," Plibersek said. "Now, we’ve exceeded that, protecting an impressive 52 per cent." 

EPBC developments:

• The federal government is inviting public comment on a referral for the Western Green Energy Hub, on Mirning Native Title land in southeastern Western Australia. The project will be carried out in seven stages, in the form of "nodes" of between 2GW and 3GW of wind and solar will be developed, with a 1.5 GW electrolyser and/or data centre set within the centre of each node. The project will ultimately generate up to approximately 70GW of renewable energy.
• The federal government is inviting public comment on a referral for ACE Power's NEBO battery energy storage system and substation expansion, in Queensland.
• Arrow CSG has lodged an EPBC referral for a 17MW solar farm on a petroleum lease in the northern Surat Basin. The power generated by the solar farm will be used by Arrow, in conjunction with a battery system and gas generator, to help power its coal seam gas operations.
• RE Future has lodged an EPBC referral for the 54MW Mumblin wind farm, near Cobden in Victoria

Consultation opportunity - ACCU scheme. The Clean Energy Regulator is seeking comment on a draft audit instrument that prescribes thresholds triggering audits of ACCU projects. The existing instrument sunsets on 1 April. Comments are due by 5 February.

Australia has submitted its first Biennial Transparency Report (BTR), as required by the Paris Agreement.

"Australia's emissions projections show that with currently implemented policies, Australia is projected to beat the 2030 target on a budget basis and be just shy of meeting the single-year point 2030 target," says a foreword by Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen.

"We are also focused on the critical decades that follow. Our Net Zero 2050 Plan and sectoral decarbonisation plans will cover all of Australia’s emissions across six major sectors of the economy. These plans will identify the key opportunities for decarbonising sectors and provide a clear path forward for our nation." 

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) has released its latest quarterly snapshot.

CSIRO is inviting small businesses to apply for the eight-week Innovate to Grow: Recycling and Circular Economy program, delivered in partnership with Deakin University's Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub (REACH).  

Innovate to Grow was launched in 2020 and has so far equipped provided training to 600 small businesses. Applications close on 16 February.

Submissions to a Senate inquiry into the government's Production Tax Credits Bill are now available.

The Senate committee inquiry held a public hearing last Thursday, with appearances by groups including the Clean Energy Council, the Superpower Institute, the Minerals Council, the Australian Hydrogen Council, and Treasury.

The Climate Council has released a new report on Australia's ageing coal fleet and summer blackouts.

Grant opportunity - EV charging. The federal government is offering car dealerships and EV repairers grants of up to $2,500 for every eligible smart EV charger that they install, up to a maximum of $20,000 per site.

Queensland Deputy Premier and Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie has exercised rarely-used ministerial powers to re-assess and re-decide a wind farm project that received state approval last month.

Bleijie has issued a call in notice regarding the approval granted for Greenleaf Renewables' $1 billion, 450MW Moonlight Range wind farm near Rockhampton.

The call-in notice allows him to re-decide the development application. The Minister has invited public comments on the project by 14 March.

"The Crisafulli government is acting to ensure local communities are consulted for any new wind farm developments, in line with the LNP’s election commitment," Bleijie said in a media statement.

"These actions are the first step in delivering the LNP's election commitment to ensure renewable energy projects are impact assessable with approval processes consistent with other land uses like mining," he said.

Using another rarely used power, a ministerial direction, Bleijie has paused for four months the assessments for three other wind farms currently under assessment.

Open consultations:

• Queensland's environment department is inviting submissions about particular wastes that might be suitable for the preparation of new End Of Waste codes. Submissions must be lodged by 10 February. The call for submissions is made annually.

The state government has issued a guide to measuring the success of ecological restoration.

Open consultations:

• Renewable gas. The Victorian government has released a renewable gas directions paper, which proposes a market-based certificate scheme called the Industrial Renewable Gas Guarantee. Comments are due by 7 February.
• Connecting energy projects to the grid. VicGrid is consulting on network access arrangements to manage how renewable energy projects connect to the state's electricity transmission network. Comments are due by 14 February.
• VEU changes. The Victorian government is consulting on plans to reward the introduction of new energy management information systems through the Victorian Energy Upgrades program. Comments are due by 17 February.

Eric Abetz, Tasmania's Minister for Business, Industry and Resources, has written to the federal government criticising a proposal to prioritise the development of a new ACCU method that would issue carbon credits for deferring or ending native forest harvesting.

In a media statement, Abetz described the proposed method as "an underhanded attack on Tasmanian jobs".

"This is an attack on regional jobs here in Tasmania, plain and simple," Abetz said.

"Tasmania will not support any carbon credit scheme proposal that undermines the value of our native forestry sector and puts at risk local jobs in an attempt to placate extremist environmental groups."

Federal Shadow Minister for the Environment, Fisheries and Forestry, Jonathan Duniam called on the federal government to "urgently scrap this process and, in doing so, recognise the importance of native forestry for our environment and our economy".

Consultation opportunity - biodiversity bill. The state government has released a draft Biodiversity Bill.

The objects of the bill include "to protect, restore and enhance biodiversity such that there is an improvement in the state of biodiversity at all scales and to build the resilience of biodiversity".

The bill's guiding principles include halting and reversing biodiversity loss, so there is an improvement in the state of biodiversity.

It also introduces a new general duty to ensure the protection of biodiversity. A breach of the general duty would not be an offence, but would allow the department to issue administrative or civil orders requiring that the harm caused be remedied.  

The bill:

• includes a broader range of mechanisms to incentivise private land conservation, and provides for the introduction of others, partly to maximise opportunities under the federal nature repair market.
• requires the development of a state biodiversity plan, to identify and map priorities for conservation and restoration.
• establishes a public biodiversity register to ensure evidence underpinning decision-making is available to all.
• increases fines and establishes a broader range of compliance tools.
• better aligns threatened species listing procedures with the EPBC Act.

The bill would replace the Native Vegetation Act 1991, and incorporate wildlife provisions of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. Comments are due by 18 February.

Open consultations:

• Biosolids. The NT EPA has released proposed guidelines for biosolids management. Comments are due by 28 February.

New listings are in blue.

Brazil has appointed veteran climate diplomat André Aranha Corrêa do Lago to lead this year’s COP30 UN climate summit in November in the Amazonian city of Belém, reports Climate Home News.

Corrêa do Lago has been Secretary for Climate, Energy and Environment at Brazil’s foreign ministry and Brazil’s chief climate negotiator since 2023 when President Lula da Silva returned to power.

The financial institutions and industries that are backtracking on climate commitments are on the wrong side of history, and the wrong side of science, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has told the annual Davos forum. 

"To the corporate leaders who remain committed to climate action — your leadership is needed now, more than ever," Guterres said. 

"Do not back down.  Stay on the right side of history.  Now is the time to shift our collective efforts into overdrive and make 2025 the biggest year yet for climate action."

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures has released further sector guidance to support the assessment, management and disclosure of nature-related issues.

The new guidance is for the following sectors:

• Apparel, textiles & footwear.
• Beverages.
• Construction materials.
• Engineering, construction & real estate.

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