Speaking at the National Press Club, Combet said the Net Zero Economy Authority – a new government agency proposed to help manage the country’s transformation from a dirty to a clean economy – was putting together a “pipeline” of clean industrial projects and would be “figuring out how to help bring them to concrete investment decisions”.
“If we do this well, Australia has the opportunity to develop numerous new clean industrial projects, involving billions of investment dollars and providing thousands of jobs,” he said. “Neither government funding nor private capital alone can meet this challenge.”
Combet said the agency had been involved “in the policy discussion” in the lead-up to next month’s budget, and the government had indicated it would “look to capitalise on Australia’s comparative advantage in minerals and renewable energy, aiming to encourage large-scale investment in green industrial production”.
He suggested that the government and its funding bodies would need to look beyond grants and concessional loans, and should consider direct investments in “particularly large transformative projects” when necessary.
“Governments may need to consider being significant equity players, helping to de-risk projects and adopting a long-term view before recovering capital,” he said.
