Greg Combet has always been one of our favourites and there was a sense of loss when he left his role as Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in 2013 and went away to other jobs. Much less important jobs, we thought – a big waste of a strong talent. But in recent times, he’s slowly and in keeping with his low key vibe, come quietly back to positions of influence.
Since its inception in July last year, he’s headed up the Net Zero Economy Agency as chair and soon he’ll be taking up a new role as chair of the $212 billion Future Fund. There, he can hopefully make some of the bold investment decisions that this country needs if it’s to face possibly some of the toughest climate challenges on the planet.
At the National Press Club this week Combet did a lot to unpack what’s been going on behind closed doors in Canberra.
It’s been a long time coming. There were more than a few people ready to throw in the towel on expecting any significant action from this government on climate and sustainability before the next federal election rolls around.
Combet’s speech is long but it’s worth wading through. Instead of the usual hyperbole you might expect, he crafts a picture of the many moving parts that must come into harmony to bring about the transformation to a net zero economy that with all its natural gifts and grit you could argue is Australia’s birthright.
He laid out an astounding series of plans, achievements and analysis that the federal government has been working on to engineer this transition.
First the agency he’s headed is changing its role to that of Authority. That’s not just a bit of fluff. It’s to ensure it can wield the influence it needs to orchestrate the delicate game of complex systems change that will yield results.
Because taking the loud, roughshod approach is just not going to work in a country that has forever relied on its extraction from the land for its fortune. (That and property development.)
To effect the transition, we need the government, Combet said, but we also need the private sector. We need the clean energy industries but also the workers who are part of the old economy knee deep in coal dust and oil.
And we need not just this country to pull together, but we need collaboration from trading partners who will buy our shiny clean new energy.
All those moving complex parts are hugely complex, hugely volatile and it needs kid gloves to get to move in harmony. The role he described was as a sort of diplomatic engineer and strategist – working out how everything needed to work together. The shift from agency to authority is allowing that bit more subtle clout.
It might sound boring and unambitious to some – certainly devoid of glamour. But it’s this kind of work that gets stuff done. Without upsetting the egos. In many ways it’s these people who can round up all the loud clanging parts that fight tooth and nail at an election to keep a coal mine or stop an offshore windfarm and get them to all sit around the table singing Kumbaya.
The list of work Combet enumerated in his speech was a tad on the dizzying side. He likened it to post war reconstruction and it is, because of this nation’s massive reliance on fossil fuels.
“In the 2022-23 financial year alone, the total value of Australian coal and liquefied natural gas exports was almost $220 billion” about 30 per cent of total exports he told the audience, he said.
That’s the reality of what we are dealing with.
The “to do” list ranged from the need to transition the central and northern Queensland away from coal to funding to lining up Japanese customers for green hydrogen.
It’s worth southerners pause a moment to consider the scale of this challenge and why it’s so critical to everyone’s future.
Gladstone, he said, produces 40 per cent of Queensland’s energy and is home to more than half of Australia’s coal mines and more than a fifth of Australian miners. It’s also a major producer of key industrial products like cement, alumina, aluminium and ammonia.
This economic grunt is why this region is so important to then nation’s transition and why the transition the region needs to be a “key national endeavour”. It has “tens of thousands of people” and livelihoods at stake.
For this reason part of the legislation that will change the name and role of Combet’s current agency to “Authority” will include a new Energy Industry Jobs Plan – complete with consultation, retraining, TAFE and anything else people need to get on board with this challenging ride.
But work is already under way. The Queensland state government already has “52 large-scale renewable energy projects planned or operating, representing more than $11 billion of investment – and growing”. Other news from Combet’s list included:
- Rio Tinto signed Australia’s biggest renewable energy deal to power its Boyne aluminium smelter in Gladstone with solar and wind energy
- The CQ-H2 project in Gladstone, which has brought together Japanese and Singaporean partners with the Queensland government-owned Stanwell to develop Queensland’s largest renewable hydrogen project
- Orica planning to use green hydrogen to develop ammonia for its fertiliser and explosives facility
- Fortescue building a 50MW green hydrogen electrolyser plant in Gladstone
- Japanese firm Sumitomo plans for a hydrogen pilot plant at Rio Tinto’s Yarwun alumina refinery, to help decarbonise operations
- $20 billion already committed to creating the transmission lines for clean energy
- Decarbonising plans for key economic sectors
- $2 billion to kick start green hydrogen production
- New vehicle efficiency standards
- Climate risk and greenhouse gas and energy mandatory reporting
- Government financing mechanisms to help drive investment in the energy transformation May budget announcements expected to capitalise on Australia’s comparative advantage in minerals and renewable energy, aiming to encourage large-scale investment in green industrial production
It goes on.
And that’s just the federal government level, Combet said. Each state and territory government is “on it”. Check out some of what Victoria is doing.
Internationally there’s already massive action thanks to another quiet achiever – US President Joe Biden whose Inflation Reduction Act has been such a big glossy attractor that other counties such as the EU, Japan and Korea are all following suit, Combet said.
For Australia’s part the government has identified four key areas for building the net zero economy:
- refining and processing critical minerals
- supporting manufacturing of energy generation and storage technologies, including batteries
- producing renewable hydrogen and its derivatives like ammonia
- and forging green metals
Combet didn’t mention the property sector other than obliquely through his listing of the sectors identified for decarbonisation, but it’s clear buildings can play a huge part to minimise the amount of clean energy that’s needed.
Like we said his speech is worth diving into because you can see that behind the smoke and mirrors of politics there’s been a lot of busy people.
The appointment of Sam Mostyn is big news for climate and women
There’s another great leadership move that we absolutely need to acknowledge this week – the appointment of Sam Mostyn as the new governor general. Let’s leave aside whether Australia ought to be big enough and bold enough to be a republic by now – we keep losing referendums after all – but regardless it’s a high profile gig that we hope and trust that Mostyn uses to bring more light and scrutiny to the issues she cares about. Which mostly happen to align to ours.
Right from the start of The Fifth Estate we crossed paths with Mostyn and she always stood out among other leaders as someone with a particular quality that you can’t help but admire.
Certainly, we know about her championing of climate and women’s equality issues but Mostyn is also a commissioner of the Australian Football League, a role we’re guessing falls into the change agent basket. But there are also her many business gigs including director of Transurban, Virgin, Insurance Australia Group, Optus, Mirvac, Citi’s consumer bank, a number of not for profit organisations, and chair of Aware Super.
Her background includes adviser to Paul Keating when he was prime minister, pollies Bob Collins and Michael Lee and now, the current PM, Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and teal independents as they were vying for power.
What’s particularly encouraging is that there’s been an outpouring in the media of Mostyn’s ability to be empowering and collaborative, and to be able to talk to everyone and anyone – exactly what we need now for the massive transition Australia needs now, as Greg Combet told the National Press Club.
Let’s hope that the climate and sustainability issues continue to be strong with her and rise to the very top of her agenda – and that she brings everyone along with her, in collaboration, equity and diversity.
A few weeks ago Mostyn sat just two seats away at the front of the UTS Great Hall to listen to economist Mariana Mazzucato.
We were so tempted to do the fan thing … but of course refrained. Wish now…