ESG Snapshot: Issue 98

This week's highlights include:

• Carbon credits bulk-buy. In a first, the ACCC plans to authorise an ACCUs bulk-buy, and it could benefit Victorian environmental plantings projects.
• 'No meaningful response'. Queensland's environment department has issued a PFAS-related enforcement order to Liquid Terminals Australia.
• Marine heatwave inquiry. The Greens will seek an inquiry into South Australia's deadly marine heat wave, as soon as federal Parliament resumes.
• Energy partners. A partnership between Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation and ACEN is seeking approval for a 1.5GW clean energy project in the Pilbara.
• Inpex secures federal help. The Major Projects Facilitation Agency will help a proposed Inpex-operated CCS project through assessment processes.
• Transmission milestone. Victoria's Ausnet has released the environmental effects statement for the Western Renewables Link.
• First class approach. France, Spain, and six other countries want business and first-class flyers to pay a climate and development levy (international).

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

The federal government has launched a review of gas market regulations, which is examining supply, pricing, transparency, and the operation of wholesale markets.

The federal government has granted Major Project Status to the proposed Inpex-operated Bonaparte Carbon Capture and Storage project, located offshore from Darwin, stating that the project would "support emissions reductions in hard-to-abate sectors such as metal and chemical refining".

The project would be a large-scale, multi-user CCS hub, aggregating CO₂ from multiple emitters - including the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG facility, which would be the anchor customer.

Other members of the joint venture that is developing the CCS project are Total Energies(26%) and Woodside (21%).

The project would have an annual injection capacity of more than 10 million tonnes a year - much larger than existing CCS projects.

The government has also granted Major Project Status to Diatreme's $534 million Northern Silica project, located North of Cairns, which will annually produce up to five million tonnes of silica sand, supplying materials for solar panels, silicon wafers, and high-end electronics.

Major Project Status provides companies with extra support to navigate the approvals system, with support from the Major Projects Facilitation Agency.

ARENA has awarded $432 million to Orica's Hunter Valley hydrogen project under round one of the Hydrogen Headstart program.

The project will involve construction of a hydrogen production plant with 50MW of electrolyser capacaty near Orica's Kooragang Island site. The new plant will be capable of annually producing around 4,700  tonnes of renewable hydrogen.

Meanwhile, the government has issued a consultation paper on the design of round two of the Hydrogen Headstart program. The Round 2 funding envelope is
anticipated to be up to $2 billion. Comments are due by 31 July.

The Greens have announced they will seek an urgent federal parliamentary inquiry as soon as Parliament resumes into South Australia's marine heat wave, which has triggered an algal bloom that is poisoning marine life and starving it of oxygen.

"Like many South Australians, my weekend beach walks have become exercises in counting dead fish and steering clear of the murky water," Greens Senator Hanson-Young said.

"Our beaches are now marine graveyards. Littered with dead fish, sea horses and even dolphins," Senator Hanson-Young said.

"It is an environmental apocalypse," she said. "Climate change is here and it’s killing nature - polluting our oceans, beaches and waterways."

The Senator criticised the federal and South Australian governments for reportedly not providing additional funds to deal with the marine crisis.

New chemical scheduling through Australia's Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management Standard (IChEMS) has banned the import, export and manufacture of three PFAS chemicals , and new limits have been set for disposal.

The three PFAS chemicals are PFOA, PFOS, and PFHxS. States will now implement the new IChEMS rules in their own jurisdictions. 

The federal government has issued a draft National Recovery plan for the Golden sun moth, which is found in native grasslands in the ACT, NSW and Victoria. Comments are due by 2 October.

ARENA has awarded robotics company Luminous a $4.9 million grant, making the business the first recipient of funding under ARENA's $100 million Solar ScaleUp Challenge.

The grant will be used by Luminous to demonstrate its LUMI robot, which is designed to streamline utility scale solar construction.

The ACCC intends authorising a renewables bulk-buy led by 1Circle Pty Ltd that is likely to involve a range of large-energy using sites.

The latest edition of the Resources and energy quarterly, published by the Office of the Chief Economist, is now available.

Thermal coal earnings are forecast to fall by $5 billion to $27.7 billion in
FY26 due to the impact of weaker prices. Lower volumes are expected
to drive a further decline to $26.2 billion in FY27.

ERM has released a briefing paper on power market risks, which Australia's electricity markets are becoming more volatile and less liquid.

"Many large energy users have become complacent about managing their energy risks, incorrectly feeling they have no control, trusting that government will deliver a 'smooth' transition and/or unrealistically expecting their electricity retailer will absorb the electricity transition risk at current premia," it warns.

"If you’re uncontracted through to 2030 and possibly beyond, you must act now or risk a future where you will be forced to recontract for supply amid heightened uncertainty and volatility," the briefing paper says.

Climateworks has issued a new briefing paper on superannuation funds, which recommends the use of climate transition indices.

Open consultations:

• Guarantee of Origin scheme. DCCEEW has opened a new round of consultation on aspects of the Guarantee of Origin (GO) scheme, ahead of the scheme's launch later this year. Comments are due by 18 July.
• Offshore carbon capture and storage. DCCEEW is consulting on three offshore CCS guidance documents. Comments are due by 12 September.

The latest Track Changes pod is out - 'Climate activists who left fossil firms'! Featuring a panel chat with Greg Bourne (ex-BP), Lindsey Gulden (formerly of Exxon), and Alex Hillman (ex-Woodside). On Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

The Department of the Environment, Science and Innovation has issued an environmental enforcement order to Liquid Terminals Australia over PFAS contamination concerns at its Pinkenba facility.

The notice says the department believes the company has "not met the General Environmental Duty", specified in the Environmental Protection Act. The company has not provided "any meaningful response" to departmental emails regarding PFAS sampling and the site's fire foam system, it says.

Open consultations:

• The Queensland government has launched a statutory review of the environmentally relevant activity (ERA) standards that form part of the Great Barrier Reef protection regulations for agriculture. Comments are due by 8 August.

The NSW Energy Security Corporation is now fully operational, with the appointment of an independent Board chaired by Cameron O’Reilly, an expert in public policy and the Australian energy market and electricity transition.

Other Board members are David Borger, Helen Conway, Michael Cummings, Sharon Eacott, Katerina Kimmorley and Daniel Papps.

The Corporation has $1 billion in seed funding to invest in large-scale storage and associated assets.

The NSW government has placed on exhibition the EIS for Neoen's proposed 577MW Tchelery wind farm, near Balranald.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry into electric vehicle infrastructure held two public hearings last week.

The NSW government has teamed with The Good Guys to provide discount washing machines to low-income households for $250.

The subsidy scheme will benefit up to 8,000 concession card holders in the state. 

Open consultations:

• The NSW government is consulting on a new draft heritage strategy. Comments are due by 13 July.
• The NSW Net Zero Commission has issued a consultation paper on the transition to net zero, and the work of the Commission. Comments are due by 11 July.

The ACCC has released a draft determination proposing to grant authorisation to VicWater and 15 Victorian water corporations for the joint acquisition and/or generation ofAustralian carbon credit units.

The ACCUs will be retired to assist the various water corporations to achieve their statutory greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of net zero by 1 July 2035, or sooner.

With the exception of Melbourne Water, the water corporations must use ACCUs from projects in Victoria, if they make use of ACCUs.

"However, for the majority of water corporations and particularly those that are smaller, VicWater has identified that allowing water corporations to collectively acquire and generate ACCUs will provide significant efficiencies that increase the speed and certainty of emissions reduction obligations being met," the ACCC says.

Joint purchasing will allow them to mitigate risks associated with individually buying or generating ACCUs, the ACCC says.

The joint arrangement is expected to result in the collective demand for less than 800,000 ACCUs over the 10 years to 2035.

In comments on the application, CORE Markets says that by pooling their procurement needs, water corporations could save between $2 to $10 per ACCU.

"To provide an illustrative example, a credit seller might set the price at around $30/unit if an entity is acquiring 80,000 ACCUs, whereas it the price might be around $40/unit if an entity only wants to acquire 5,000 ACCUs," CORE Markets says.

"The range of sellers and brokers that would provide competitive pricing for volumes of 80,000 is much broader than those that would provide competitive pricing for volumes of 5,000 units," CORE Markets adds.

In its comments, EcoSecurities said that 80,000 ACCUs per year is a potentially significant volume, "particularly if the participating members constrain themselves to ACCUs from environmental planting projects in Victoria".

"There are less environmental planting projects in Victoria than other states such as NSW and WA," it says.

"The collective volume under the proposed conduct could therefore be ‘market making’, encouraging more Victorian environmental planting, and resulting in a better geographic distribution of environmental plantings across Australia," it says.

Management and delivery of the ACCUs would be done through a Special Purpose Vehicle. Comments are due by 18 July.

The Victorian government has gazetted new minimum energy efficiency regulations for rental properties.

AusNet has placed on exhibition the environmental effects statement for the Western Renewables Link Project - a 190-kilometre transmission line that would run from Bulgana in Western Victoria to Sydenham in Melbourne's north-west.

The project spans six local government areas - the Northern Grampians, Pyrenees, Ballarat, Hepburn, Moorabool, and Melton.

Comments are due by 2 August.

The Victorian government has gazetted a change to the state's Planning Provisions that allows gas extraction, storage, transmission and importation projects to be assessed and approved via the streamlined Development Facilitation Program.

"Responsibly facilitating gas projects is necessary to ensure there is sufficient gas supply to support the move to renewable electricity and maintain downward pressure on emissions," says an explanation for the change.

"Since local gas reserves are limited, other temporary supply options are required including gas import terminals to balance supply," it says.

The Victorian government has granted a planning permit for Global Power Generation's Tarrone Battery Energy Storage System, just under nine months after it received the application for a planning permit.

The BESS was assessed via the state's streamlined Development Facilitation Program for environmental assessment.

Labor leader Dean Winter has pledged to transfer Tasmania's stake in the proposed Marinus Bass Strait interconnector to the Victorian and federal governments if Labor wins the 19 July state election.

The transfer would reduce state debt, Winter said.

Open consultations:

• Green Industries SA is consulting on a draft statewide circular economy and waste strategy for 2025 to 2030. Comments are due by 23 July.

The Yinjibarndi Energy Corporation - which is a partnership between Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YEC) and ACEN Corporation - has made an EPBC referral for the Baru-Marnda Renewable Energy project, proposed for a site near Karratha.

The project, which would connect via the North West Interconnected System (NWIS), would comprise 1,000MW of wind and 500MW of solar, with an option for energy storage.

The EIS for the project notes that the state government estimates the Pilbara will require between 24GW and 41GW of new renewable energy by 2050.

The YEC is already developing the 15oMW Jinbi solar farm, with energy from that project 100% contracted to Rio Tinto, and says the two existing projects are just the start.

"To date, YEC has identified the potential for up to 3GW of wind, solar, and battery storage potential across Yindjibarndi ngurra," its EPBC referral says.

World Heritage listing of Western Australia's Murujuga Cultural Landscape will be considered at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee that underway in Paris.

A draft Committee decision proposes that the proposed listing be referred back to Australia for it to remove "degrading acidic emissions" affecting the landscape, and prevent any further industrial development in or near it.

Premier Roger Cook is in Japan for what he terms "high-level meetings with government and industry stakeholders in support of continued collaboration on the clean energy transition".

"The role that WA's continuing LNG exports will play in Japan's energy transition will be an important discussion topic for the trip, as will opportunities for mutually beneficial co-operation across areas such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage, hydrogen, ammonia and green iron," the Premier said.

In the largest addition to the NT national park estate in 25 years, the Territory government has purchased a 30,000-hectare property that will expand the size of the Litchfield National Park by 20%.

Market Forces has released a new analysis of APA Group's Beetaloo Basin gas pipeline plans.

New listings are in blue.

A new coalition of eight countries, including France and Spain, aims to raise funds for development challenges including climate change adaptation and mitigation, through levies on those airline passengers travelling in first and business class, or by private jet.

The coalition will have technical support from the European Commission, and the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force.

The European Commission has proposed a 2040 EU climate target of a 90% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 1990 levels, putting it on course for net zero by 2050. 

The target would be given statutory force through an amendment to the EU Climate Law.

Governments and industry are working to reduce emissions from natural gas supply – from both domestic production and imports – while also looking to improve energy security, says a new report from the International Energy Agency.

"One emerging approach is natural gas certification, which can help buyers make more informed decisions by providing independently verified greenhouse gas intensity data at select stages of the supply chain, from production and processing to storage and transport, but excluding final consumption," it says.

"This can support the implementation of best practices throughout the entire supply chain, and help importing countries and regions better understand how natural gas consumption fits within their wider emissions reduction policies and pledges."

The Green Climate Fund Board has approved finance totalling US$1.225 billion for 17 new climate projects in developing countries around the world.

Projects include a forests project in Papua New Guinea.

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