Morrison Puts Gas at Centre of Climate Policy

Morrison puts gas at centre of climate policy

Jan 29, 2020 — 2.03pm

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has delivered arobust defence of his government's climate policies and vowed to put gas frontand centre of his response to global warming.

Mr Morrisonsaid getting access to domestic gas supplies was "central" to"bridge the gap" as the economy shifted to use more renewable energy.

The PM said "gas has a critical role to play,as a back-stop to our record investment in renewable energygeneration"

"There isno credible energy transition plan for an economy like Australia, inparticular, that does not involve the greater use of gas as an importanttransition fuel," the prime minister told the national press club onWednesday.

He also flaggednew agreements with the states designed to keep energy prices affordable,improve the reliability of the grid and drive down emissions.

"One ofthe major vehicles for driving this agenda forward will be bilateral agreementson energy and emissions reductions with each state and territory and that willbegin with New South Wales and I'll have more to say about that soon."

Mr Morrison rejected the recentEuropean call to tax carbon emissions and defended hisgovernment's approach to global warming, saying he refused to "coplectures" from critics who wanted to shut down Australian coalmines and"and Australian jobs that go with them".

"I am notgoing to sell out Australians based on the calls from some to put higher taxeson them or push up their electricity prices or to abandon their jobs and theirindustries and them they are collateral damage of a global movement. I won't dothat."

"TheAustralian accent is saying about emissions reduction right now that meetingand beating our Kyoto targets. We will meet and beat our Paris targets."

He said thegovernment would next month release for consultation a new technology road mapcharting the way forward in areas such as hydrogen, solar and batteries,transmission and networks, large scale energy storage and carbon capture andstorage.