Three Knitting Nannas met with the Minister for Climate and Energy, Chris Bowen, when we were in Canberra at the end of May.
Nanna Dom is from the NSW Mid-Coast loop, and Nannas Marie and Heather are from Sydney. We explained that although the Lismore Nannas organised the meeting and subsequent events, they didn’t feel up to talking with him because two years on they are still experiencing distress and trauma from the flood disaster in Lismore.
Mr Bowen was welcoming and generous with his time, giving us an additional 15 minutes to our scheduled half hour meeting. He seemed to take us seriously and didn’t patronise us or condescend to us.
We acknowledged Bowen’s work to fix the electricity grid and promote the development of renewable energy projects, noting how hard it is proving to be.
Expansion of fossil fuels
Dom asked how could expanding fossil fuels be justified in the context of a climate emergency. Every day brings another extreme climate event, and we know fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change.
Bowen said that four coal and one gas project had been approved – not many of the hundreds people talk about.
National Security
Dom raised that the real threat to national security is climate change, not limiting the export of fossil fuels to other countries. She asked why the government isn’t telling people the truth about climate change to encourage them to help in whatever way they can.
Bowen said that people are dealing with lots of challenges and he doesn’t want to be giving them more bad news all the time.
Dom asked why haven’t we been told what is in the Office of National Security’s report on national security issues related to climate change?
Bowen said that the main points in the Office of National Security’s report are included in the government’s climate policy documents. He said the unredacted Report was not ever going to be released.
Future Gas Strategy
Heather asked about the Future Gas Strategy, noting that he has said on the media a few times that the good thing about gas is that it can be turned off when not needed. She said that this is true of gas peaking power plants for domestic use, but what is proposed in the strategy is opening up new mines and infrastructure in order to export more gas.
Bowen replied that the Hunter gas plant will be coming online soon, and it will only be used 10-20% of the time. He argued that blackouts were a real risk, and any blackouts would be a major source of public alarm, which could jeopardise any support for renewables and higher net zero emissions targets.
We asked if what he meant was that blackouts would be electoral disasters for the Federal ALP government?
He denied they were focussed on the next election but said ‘you can either have Anthony or Dutton’ making decisions about energy.
Gas Exports
Gas extraction infrastructure will remain for exports as these are expected to be ongoing. Exports are mainly to Japan, Korea and Singapore, countries which have a limited opportunity to develop renewable energy. Bowen plans to use new Australian gas to keep them going, and then to provide them with green hydrogen when Australia is able to do so. We need to help them to decarbonize their economies to reduce global emissions.
Dom said that it isn’t Australia’s job to decarbonize the economies of other countries. It is the government’s job to reduce emissions from Australian fossil fuels. We are facing climate collapse.
Bowen said if Australia doesn’t supply the gas they will get it from Russia. He noted that critics call this the ‘’drug dealers’ defence’’ but he sees his job to work towards them making a transition to clean energy which Australia will be able to supply.
Green Hydrogen
Bowen told us many facts about renewables but focussed mostly on green hydrogen as the power source not only for Australia but for others in our region. Australia was going to ‘help’ places like Japan to decarbonise. He said that Australia will be producing green hydrogen by 2030.
Note – Follow up questions:
Will the process of electrolysis to make hydrogen from water be powered by renewables or gas?
Does the government intend to keep exporting gas to our existing customers until they can move to hydrogen?
Methane Emissions
Marie raised the issue of methane emissions from coal and gas mining, and that it is now acknowledged that they are under-reported and not part of our climate reporting. He said that he is working on steps to improve this situation and an announcement can be expected in a couple of weeks.
On coal he made a distinction between thermal coal and metallurgical coal which will be needed to make steel for a long time.
Bowen and his staffer insisted that agriculture was a major source of methane emissions. (This is NOT the case now. The CSIRO says that as of June 2023: Energy production is the largest contributor to Australia’s carbon emissions. This is followed by transport, agriculture, and industrial processes. Specifically – burning fossil fuels to produce electricity contributed 32.6 per cent of the total emissions. https://www.csiro.au/en/research/environmental-impacts/climate-change/climate-change-qa/sources-of-co2 )
Just Transition Plans
When asked about ‘just transition’ plans for workers who would inevitably need to retrain and/or move etc, he brushed that off quickly by saying ‘We have already done all that’ and talked about increasing funding, reinstating TAFE and increasing funding for apprenticeships etc.
Pacific Neighbours
Nannas raised the extreme climate events that are coming unless temperature rises can be kept to 1.5 degrees. In a long response Bowen indicated there will be increased warming and that’s why the government has told the governments of Pacific neighbours they will be accepted here.
Net Zero Emissions Target
Bowen stressed often that the ALP government had legislated a major rise in the emission reduction target of 43% by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050. He insisted that it was hard for the public to realise how hard that was going to be. And because he wanted to emphasise the government’s commitment, he said repeatedly: ‘But we will do it.’
Note: Reaching Net zero emissions relies on untested at scale technologies such as carbon capture and storage, and offsets for fossil fuel production, which have been proven to not reduce emissions. We should be asking for real zero emissions.
Nanna Quotes
Nanna Dom: “I am disappointed and angry after meeting with Chris Bowen, our Climate Change and Energy Minister. He was welcoming and generous with his time with us. But he doesn’t have the answers we need.
I think he has great focus on energy and reliability and costs etc for that portfolio but he is left wanting in the portfolio of climate change. Nannas will have heard all the one liners and rhetoric that we heard in there. We no longer have time for that.
What we need is for the truth to be told to the people by the government and the media about the climate and ecological emergency that is bearing down on us. We need brave leadership that tells the truth and will help us all to make the changes necessary as we enter unprecedented times.”