ESG Snapshot: Issue 83

This week's highlights include:

• PFAS. The latest edition of a national PFAS management plan includes new advice on investigation, remediation, and resource re-use.
• Renewables priorities. DCCEEW has released a nationally-agreed list of 56 priority transmission, generation and storage projects. 
• Circularity. The Productivity Commission has issued its interim report on circularity opportunities.
• Renewables ratings. The federal government is seeking renewable energy project developers interested in helping to a design a rating scheme.
• Costly slowdown. If Australia were to slow its efforts to deploy renewables, household and business power bills would rise sharply, says new modelling.
• ACCU scheme. NSW has released a design outline for a proposed new ACCU method that it successfully pitched to the federal government.

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

The federal government, on behalf of all states and territories, has released the third version of the PFAS National Environmental Management Plan.

 It includes new and additional guidance and standards on priority areas including:

• guideline values for investigation and risk assessment.
• guidance around remediation of contaminated land.
• guidance on the re-use of resource recovery products.
• risk-based criteria for the re-use of biosolids contaminated with PFAS.

Consultation opportunity - circularity. The Productivity Commission has released its interim report on circular economy opportunities.

"Despite some uptake of circular economy opportunities in Australia, progress has been slow," the Commission says.

Barriers include high costs, outdated or inconsistent regulations, coordination challenges, and limited practical information, it says.

The report says the federal government should play a more significant role in coordinating product stewardship schemes, and it recommends updating and harmonising regulations

The report focuses on six areas - the built environment, food and agriculture, textiles and clothing, mining, vehicles, and electronics.

Issues covered in the report include how the benefits of biogas from anaerobic digestion could be better reported and valued.

It also suggests that the federal government develop a product labelling scheme that provides consumer information about durability and repairability for household appliances and consumer electronics.

It calls for the national TV and computer recycling scheme to be amended to include reuse and repair targets, and supports the federal government's intention to establish a co-regulatory product stewardship scheme for small electronics.

Comments are due by 11 April.

The federal government, after consultation with states and territories, has released the inaugural National Renewable Energy Priority List.

The List will provide coordinated support for regulatory planning and environmental approval processes for identified priority renewable energy projects across Australia.

The inaugural Priority List identifies 56 priority projects nationally consisting of 24 transmission, and 32 generation and storage projects. 

If approved through Commonwealth, state and territory regulatory planning and environmental processes, these projects could deliver an additional 16GW of generation and approximately 6GW of storage capacity.

"Nationally, these generation projects can provide the annual electricity needs for over 9 million homes," DCCEEW says. "The storage projects could meet peak energy demand for over five million homes for up to four hours."

DCCEEW is seeking registrations of interest from developers of renewable energy infrastructure and transmission lines wishing to participate in a design and testing program for a proposed Renewable Energy Developer Rating Scheme.

Businesses appointed to the Renewable Energy Businesses Participation Panel will work along-side other key stakeholder groups that will advise on the scheme's design, including a Landholder and Community Lived Experience Panel and a Stakeholder Reference Group.

The establishment of a developer rating scheme was recommended last year by a community engagement review conducted by former Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer.

DCCEEW has released an independent review of its agriculture biodiversity stewardship pilot programs, comprising the Carbon + Biodiversity pilot, and the Enhancing Remnant Vegetation pilot.

The review makes several recommendations, including to reduce transaction costs.

The federal government will establish a National Food Council, and develop a new national food security strategy, according to Agriculture Minister Julie Collins.

The government will also examine the potential to grow a biofuels feedstock industry to support Australia’s transition to net zero, Collins said. 

Eleven business and finance groups have jointly endorsed Australia's continued bipartisan commitment to the Paris Agreement goals, and have called on all levels of government to continue to support Australia's transition to a prosperous net zero economy.

The signatories include Ai Group, the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, the Clean Energy Investor Group, CPA Australia, the Investor Group on Climate Change, the Property Council of Australia, and the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia.

The Offshore Infrastructure Regulator has for the first time approved a feasibility stage management plan for an offshore wind project - for the proposed Blue Mackerel project off Victoria's Gippsland coast.

The approval allows Blue Mackerel to begin feasibility activities.

Australian power bills could jump by 30% for households and 41% for small businesses by 2030, further aggravating the cost-of-living crisis, if Australia stalls the rollout of renewable energy, according to independent modelling by Jacobs, commissioned by the Clean Energy Council.

The modelling compares Labor's renewables-based energy transition strategy to the Coalition's energy proposals.

It examines the impact of the Coalition's proposed reduced-build trajectory for renewables, both by itself and in conjunction with a catastrophic coal plant failure.

The Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation has launched a Forest Futures advertising campaign, advocating for a comprehensive plan to protect native forests from logging.

"It is entirely illogical to lose money by logging native trees for export woodchips when we can earn far more from those trees through carbon credits and use that revenue to boost regional jobs and revive plantation timber supplies," said ACBF chair Dr Ken Henry.

The campaign is seeking a $600 million commitment from the federal government, including:

• $150 million for the Future Plantations Program.
• $200 million for an Engineered Wood Strategy.
• $100 million for a Native Forestry Transition Fund.
• $100 million for the National Forest Fire Initiative.
• $50 million for plantation expansion by 2030.

Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has appointed Angela Karl to the board of ARENA.

An Australian-led team of international scientists, including researchers from CSIRO and the University of Newcastle, have shown how PFAS chemicals can be safely destroyed by high-temperature incineration.  

CSIRO and DCCEEW are recruiting renters and owner-occupiers of apartments for a major study of how they use energy.

Smart devices will be installed in 430 apartments in various cities that will collect real-time data.

EPBC developments include:

• The federal government has delayed making an approval decision on the proposed Robbins Island wind farm in Tasmania.
• The federal government has approved Engie's proposed 372MW Hills of Gold wind farm, to be built in northern NSW.
• The federal government has also approved the proposed 1GW Liverpool Range wind farm project in NSW, and the 700MW Spicers Creek wind farm project, also in NSW.
• M Renewables, which already has six operating solar farms in Australia, and two others under construction, has made a referral for the Upper Hunter South solar farm and the Denman battery energy storage system.

Open consultations:

• ACCU animal effluent method. The Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee is looking at the animal effluent method's compliance with integrity standards, and is canvassing views on improving its usability and uptake. Comments are due by 25 March.
• Guarantee of Origin scheme. DCCEEW is consulting on the first tranche of draft rules for the Guarantee of Origin (GO) scheme. Comments are due by 27 March.
• Capacity Investment Scheme. DCCEEW has released a design paper on the WA tender under the Capacity Investment Scheme. Submissions are due by 31 March.
• ACCU Scheme. The Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee is seeking feedback on the ACCU Soil Organic Carbon Method, with comments due by 11 April.

The NSW government has released a design outline for a proposed ACCU method that would allow businesses and organisations to earn carbon credits through Improved Native Forest Management in Multiple-use Public Native Forests.

The method would provide ACCUs to projects that increase carbon stocks and avoid greenhouse gas emissions, by stopping or delaying harvesting in multiple-use public native forests.

The NSW government successfully pitched the proposed ACCU method to the federal government as a new method that should be made a development priority.

The NSW government has also released the expression of interest for the development of the method that it submitted to the federal government.

The NSW government has released two reports on the Kosciuszko offset project.

The reports describe progress in meeting the requirement that the Snowy 2.0 project must deliver a biodiversity gain in Kosciuszko National Park equivalent to 120% of the biodiversity loss identified in the Snowy 2.0 environmental assessments.

Under the biodiversity offsets strategy, the National Parks and Wildlife Service will receive up to $92.9 million in biodiversity offsets. As of 30 June 2024, it had
received $78.1 million in biodiversity offsets, including $25,346,027 in FY24.

Offset action plans have also been developed for several species.

Open consultations:

• Waste to energy. The NSW EPA is consulting on proposed changes to the state's energy from waste framework. Comments are due by 8 April.
• Resource recovery. The NSW EPA is consulting on updated guidelines regarding its resource recovery order and exemption framework. It is also consulting on a pathway to support innovative resource recovery. Comments are due by 9 April.

A new Refashioning circular design guide, funded by Sustainability Victoria, explains how to implement circular fashion design

The Blue Economy CRC has launched its hydrogen production and research facility, which will produce 262 kilograms of hydrogen per day, sufficient to run two 22-metre hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger ferries.

Tasmania's EPA is investigating potential breaches of environmental licences, waste regulations and the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act by the aquaculture industry in the southern D'Entrecasteaux Channel area.

Former Tasmanian and Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne has been included on the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women.

Open consultations:

• Planning legislation. The Tasmanian government has released a draft Bill that would allow certain types of development applications to be determined by independent Development Assessment Panels (DAP), appointed by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. Comments are due by 24 April.

Open consultations:

• Energy efficiency. The South Australian government is consulting on the next phase of the Retailer Energy Productivity Scheme (REPS), which subsidises energy efficiency activities in homes and businesses. Comments are due by 31 March.

Labor has been returned for a third term, with the results for the Legislative Council not yet finalised.

The Territory government has released a 2025 update of the Critical Minerals in the Northern Territory Guide.

New listings are in blue.

The global battery market is advancing rapidly as demand rises sharply and prices continue to decline, says an International Energy Agency commentary piece.

"In 2024, as electric car sales rose by 25% to 17 million, annual battery demand surpassed 1 TWh – a historic milestone," the IEA said.

"At the same time, the average price of a battery pack for a battery electric car dropped below USD 100 per kilowatt-hour, commonly thought of as a key threshold for competing on cost with conventional models."

InfluenceMap has released a new update to its international Carbon Majors database.

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