In today’s news, Australia’s biggest energy user, the Tomago aluminium smelter in the Hunter Valley, has announced plans to switch to almost 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030, foreshadowing an early closure for AGL’s Bayswater coal burning power station, which counts Tomago as its biggest customer.
US and Fijian officials have both called on Australia to do more to combat climate change in the wake of the grim findings revealed in the IPCC report.
And a public backlash has caused the Australian Energy Market Commission to backflip on a proposal to charge homes with rooftop solar to supply power to the grid.
Tomago’s pivot to renewables could spell end for biggest coal generator
One of Australia’s largest electricity users could make the shift to 100 per cent renewable electricity and spell the early demise of one of Australia’s largest coal-fired generators.
Australia is already suffering worsening climate disasters, more marine heatwaves, sweltering cities and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere are also in the pipeline.
The Fijian government says it hopes "everybody can get on board" with a low carbon future, as pressure mounts on Australia to adopt stronger climate action in the wake of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
A senior US climate official has warned Australia’s targets are “not sufficient” and the country should be considering a 50% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, given the urgency of the threat outlined this week in a landmark report.
A proposal for households with rooftop solar panels to be charged for exporting electricity into the power grid at certain times has been softened, with regulators guaranteeing a “free option” under which people will not face any cost.
Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt intends to formally declare that the national nuclear waste storage facility will be at Napandee, near Kimba, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.