ESG Snapshot: Issue 88

This week's highlights include:

• Targets review. Queensland's new Productivity Commission will review the state's legislated emissions and clean energy targets.
• Insulation subsidies. Victoria's energy upgrade scheme will soon start supporting household installations of insulation.
• Waste refusal. EPA Victoria has refused Veolia's application to build a waste transfer station.
• Container deposit inquiry. An inquiry into Queensland's under-performing container deposit scheme is underway.
• Farm guide. NSW Farmers has launched a new guide for landholders on negotiating with renewable energy and transmission companies.
• Offshore wind. Victoria has issued a new update on its plans to develop a large offshore wind sector.
• Looking after roundabouts. NT's Environment Ministers says environmental grants should be for practical purposes.

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

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and his Opposition counterpart Ted O'Brien have debated energy policy at the National Press Club.

The Coalition has released a Natural gas plan, which includes a commitment to establishing "a new massive $1 billion fund for critical gas infrastructure to get gas to where it is needed".

At least $58 billion worth of new private investment in clean energy would be wiped from Australia's economy under the Coalition's proposed energy agenda, according to a new analysis commissioned by the Clean Energy Council.

The analysis was conducted by Green Energy Markets.

CSIRO has released an updated report on the Australian industrial process heat market, and the path to net zero using renewable energy for process heat.

Australian industry accounts for 47% of the nation's end use energy and 42% of that is process heat, with an indicative value of $10 billion per year, the report says.

"There are renewable options for all current industrial uses of process heat," it says.

"Short to medium term opportunities that are close to, or already economic, are estimated at 217PJ/year, equal to around 36% of total industrial gas use for heat," the report says.

The fossil fuel use that would be replaced is currently worth $3.9billion a year, it estimates.

Plastic pollution littering Australian coastlines has dropped by more than a third over the last decade, according to research by CSIRO.

"Along with a 39% reduction in plastic waste in coastal areas, we also saw a 16% increase in areas we surveyed with no plastic debris at all," said CSIRO senior research scientist Dr Denise Hardesty.

The Carbon Market Institute has released its latest International carbon market update.

Grant opportunity - industrial decarbonisation. ARENA is inviting applications under round two of its Powering the Regions - Industrial Transformation Stream, with $70 million on offer.

Focus areas for round two include supporting supporting highly innovative, first of a kind technologies and solutions that have the potential to significantly reduce emissions. Applications close on 15 July.

Queensland's new Productivity Commission has been instructed to review the state's recently enacted renewable energy and interim emissions reduction targets, according to media reports (here and here).

The Productivity Commission review will examine the Clean Economy Jobs Act and the Renewable Transformation Act, passed by the former Labor government early last year.

The Productivity Commission was established by the LNP last month.

When in Opposition, the LNP supported the then Labor government's Clean Economy Jobs Bill, which mandated 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, who was the LNP environment spokesperson, told state Parliament at the time.

However, the LNP at the time did not support the other Bill, which legislated renewable energy targets, arguing that the legislation should provide for renewable energy targets to be reviewed every two years.

The state Productivity Commission review was reportedly revealed by Queensland Treasurer and Energy Minister David Janetzki in a speech to the Queensland Energy Club.

Janetzki's offical statement about the speech refer only to a government commitment to finalise a new five-year Energy Roadmap by the end of the year.  

"We're taking an approach based on economics and engineering, not ideology," Treasurer and Energy Minister Janetzki said in the official statement about the speech. 

"Queensland's coal-fired fleet is the youngest in the country and coal generation will continue to play a central role in our grid," he added.

Transcript is now available of a state parliamentary committee inquiry into Queensland's container deposit scheme, which is not meeting its legislated target of an 85% container recovery rate.

Other state and territory governments generally have similar targets and are not meeting them, but only Queensland and Western Australia have legislated the targets.

The NSW government has announced that transformation plans for 200 hectares of under-utilised land at BlueScope's Port Kembla site will be dealt with as a State-Assessed Rezoning Proposal (SARP).

The Port Kembla Land Transformation Project will be the world's largest industrial land transformation project, according to the state government.

NSW Farmers, with support from the Queensland Farmers Federation and funding from NSW's CleanCo, has launched a new guidebook to help landholders navigate renewable energy and transmission projects.

The guide covers negotiating agreements, understanding long-term farm impacts, securing fair compensation, managing land use restrictions and addressing construction disruptions and ongoing project impacts.

The NSW government is providing $60 million to councils and communities for 54 projects across the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, which it describes as "marking the first downpayment on legacy-building local projects".

The grants include $11.25 million for each of the four councils hosting the REZ.

The Victorian government has announced that home ceiling insulation will be included in the Victorian Energy Upgrades program from early 2026. 

The VEU discount will halve the average ceiling insulation install costs of $3,000 to $1,500, based on current certificate prices. 

Almost 60% of homes in Victoria either have no ceiling insulation or are under-insulated.

"These households are missing energy bill savings of more than $400 per year on average," according to the state government. 

The program will include an insulation safety and quality assurance regime, including audits and oversight requirements.

The Victorian government has released its Offshore Wind Energy Implementation Statement 4 (IS4), which provides updates on the state's the next steps towards building 2GW of offshore wind energy, as an initial step towards 9GW of offshore wind. 

The statement covers matters including includes updates procurement, legislative and regulatory reform, supply chains and local supply, transmission, and ports.

The state government will launch a Request for Proposals (RFP) stage in September this year, with contracts to be awarded before October 2026.

Successful proponents will be supported through a contract-for-difference process to provide investment certainty, and an availability payment. 

In addition, to ensure Victoria has the pipeline of workers needed to support the development of the wind industry, the state government will soon be opening grant applications for up to $4.9 million to run a Wind Worker Training Centre. 

EPA Victoria has refused an application by Veolia to establish a waste transfer station at its Hampton Park site.

"There are unacceptable risks to human health and the environment from the proposal, primarily from odour and noise emissions," the EPA said.  

The decision is subject to appeal and is now before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Octopus Investments has started construction of the 80MW Fulham solar farm and 64MW/128MWh battery in Gippsland, which is supported by the second Victorian Renewable Energy Target auction (VRET2).

The Local Government Association of Tasmania has announced its opposition to proposed state government planning reforms.

The state government is hosting its latest annual Towards net-zero in SA business in Adelaide on May 8 and 9.

In her first remarks to the new Parliament as the Labor government's new Minister for Energy and Decarbonisation, Amber-Jade Sanderson has outlined the government's proposed rebate for residential batteries.

"It will be $5,000 for Synergy customers and $7,500 for Horizon customers, acknowledging that the costs are higher in remote regions," Sanderson said.

"Importantly, we are supporting low- and middle-income earners. We will also match this scheme with a no-interest loan scheme, which will support people with the gap. Batteries can cost between $10,000 and $15,000, and it will support those households with that gap and make it much more available for people on low and middle incomes."

This is the most generous scheme in the country. It is more generous than the federal scheme. It is more generous than the New South Wales scheme. We will more than double the number of household batteries on our system, helping families to save around $1,500 a year on power bills.

The proposed federal Labor scheme "complements our scheme", the Minister said.

Delivering a ministerial statement on energy, NT Mining and Energy Minister Gerard Maley has accused the former Labor government of having left the Territory's energy system in an "absolute mess".

"Instead of penalising Territorians for Labor’s mess, our government is putting Territorians first," Maley said.

"We have formally advised government owned corporations to stop advancing their 50% renewables target by 2030, capital expenditure and, instead, plan their future spending on achieving renewable and traditional mix of energy that delivers the lowest cost electricity to Territorians."

The statement, and Labor's response are in the newly-released Hansard for the 27 March sitting of the Assembly.

On the same day, Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne told the NT Legislative Assembly he would ensure Territory environmental grants are "going to groups on the ground, doing the things that I love - looking after the environment, our plants and our roundabouts, planting Sturt Desert Peas and ensuring that we are all looking after the environment around us". 

New listings are in blue.

The International Maritime Organisation has agreed to cut net emissions from international shipping by 20% by 2030 and 70% by 2040, compared to 2008 levels, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

A global carbon pricing mechanism will be introduced, with penalties for exceeding emission limits. Ships emitting above thresholds will pay US$100 to US$380 per ton of excess CO2e, depending on the level of non-compliance.

Shipowners can purchase or transfer compliance units if they fail to meet targets. Surplus units can also be banked or sold, and ships using zero or near-zero fuels will receive financial rewards.

The measures will be formally adopted in October 2025 before entry into force in 2027. They will be mandatory for large ocean-going ships over 5,000 gross tonnage, which jointly emit 85% of the total CO₂emissions from international shipping.  

Climate-vulnerable Pacific countries - along with the EU and Britain - unsuccessfully sought a stronger carbon levy on all shipping emissions.

A Climate Home News summary of the result is here.

The International Carbon Action Partnership has released a report titled ETS, reloaded?: Designing emissions trading for net-zero and net-negative societies.

No major oil and gas producer comes close to being Paris-aligned, and many have regressed in the past year, according to a new analysis from finance and climate change think-tank Carbon Tracker.

The analysis assesses 30 of the largest upstream oil and gas producers to evaluate their alignment with the Paris Agreement.

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