Here it is anyway. Another following.

Climate targets ‘challenged’ as energy transition stumbles

Sally Patten

› EV take-up stalls on poor resale values, insufficient charging stations › Government urged to set goals for renewable gas

The Albanese government will struggle to meet its ‘‘aggressive’’ emissions reduction targets, and industries face hurdles in delivering the energy transition, senior business leaders warn.

The hurdles are in the form of delays in building transmission lines, the flatlining uptake of electric vehicles, rising costs and a shift in community attitudes. Ampol chief executive Matthew Halliday said there was a ‘‘huge challenge’’ to secure connections to the grid for fast-charging stations for EVs, and poor resale values were hampering their take-up.

Delays in building transmission lines required to carry electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar were stretching to up to five years, and scant attention was being paid to the use of gas made from plant and other organic waste, David Gillespie, managing director of gas and electricity infrastructure company Jemena, told day one of the two-day The Australian Financial Review ESG [environmental, social and governance] Summit yesterday.

In addition, rising interest rates, the cost of living crisis and the threat of power outages meant that power companies needed to focus on the reliability of supply and affordability before tackling environmental concerns, he said.

Mr Gillespie’s comments are in sharp contrast to the prevailing wisdom of a few years ago, when the energy sector was asked to place equal importance on all three elements of the ‘‘trilemma’’ – reliability, affordability and sustainability.

The handbrakes on the energy transition were not exclusive to Australia, business leaders noted. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had forced European governments, which for years had been at the vanguard of the energy transition, to switch their attention to energy supply reliability to keep the lights on. ‘‘I would say the complexity of the [energy transition] challenge is becoming more and more evident,’’ Mr Halliday told the Summit.

Australia has a net 2030 emissions target of a 43 per cent reduction below 2005 levels and net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.

‘‘There are a whole lot of challenges, including around rolling out the transmission lines,’’ Mr Halliday said. ‘‘That means that the target is absolutely challenged. It’s an aggressive target.’’

Mr Gillespie added: ‘‘They’re challenging. They’re ambitious targets.’’

Nicholas Mumford, managing director of Greenhill Energy, said that to meet the 2050 target, the government would have to work ‘‘really hard’’. Greenhill Energy’s aim is to upcycle biomass and landfill waste into low-cost clean hydrogen energy. ‘‘I think we’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit. We’re really going to have to put our shoulder behind the wheel to make 2050 work,’’ he said.

Mr Gillespie called on the federal government to set targets for renewable gas, or biomethane, as it did with renewable electricity, which drove the shift away from coal-powered energy towards solar and wind energy.

Biomethane, which can also be manufactured from cooking oil, wastewater, and agricultural and livestock waste, was a critical energy source for big industries, given their huge power demands and the technology and cost challenges facing hydrogen.

The size of the local agricultural sector also gave Australia a competitive advantage in biomethane production.

‘‘Renewable gas, I think, would benefit from the same sort of target [as electricity],’’ Mr Gillespie said.

‘‘It would give a very strong commercial signal around the importance of the role of a low-carbon combustible fuel for industry in this country, [which] is going to be incredibly important. I think it will really create a level of investment certainty around this pathway.’’ In addition, industries that purchased low-carbon gas needed to be rewarded by being credited for lowering their emissions.

‘‘Creditation is going to be a really important step,’’ Mr Gillespie said.

Mr Halliday said Australia’s EV growth was being hindered by a lacklustre second-hand market for the cars, as well as the slower-than-expected rollout of fast-charging stations.

Constant developments in EV technology were leading to the poor resale value for the vehicles, he said.

Ampol also faced difficulties in connecting fast-charging stations to the electricity grid, Mr Halliday said, adding that a couple of years ago, the expectations were that it would take six months to connect stations to the grid.

That timeframe had since ballooned to 18 months, he said.