Keeping coal open a broken climate promise

The Queensland Conservation Council has today expressed deep concern that the Crisafulli Government is reportedly planning to keep Queensland’s coal-fired power stations open beyond 2035 – breaking their pre-election promise to Queenslanders to cut emissions by 75% by 2035.

This comes as the environment peak body calls on the Queensland Government to publicly release the energy and emissions policy advice that they commissioned from the Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC). The advice, which will inform the Crisafulli Government’s 5-Year Energy Roadmap, was due to the Government on September 1.

The Treasurer and Energy Minister, David Janetzki, tasked QPC with providing advice on Queensland’s energy and emissions policy settings, including targets. The Treasurer indicated during July Estimates that the advice would be made publicly available.

The QPC did not undertake any formal open consultation when formulating their advice, and nor has the Queensland Government through the process of developing their Energy Roadmap. The Roadmap is expected to be released on October 10.

Queensland Conservation Council campaigner Stephanie Gray said

The Queensland LNP and Treasurer David Janetzki unequivocally committed to reduce Queensland’s emissions by 75% by 2035 before being sworn into government, and now they’re effectively walking away from that commitment to Queenslanders by pledging that coal will be open for longer.

If the Crisafulli Government keeps axing wind farms, while keeping our ageing coal power stations on taxpayer-funded life support past their scheduled retirement dates, they’re signing Queenslanders up to foot the bill for more expensive power and more climate-fuelled disasters.

Despite this Government’s energy policy chaos, Queensland still has a strong pipeline of renewable energy projects that are set to be built over the next three years. There’s no reason for making taxpayers fork out hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the failing Callide B coal power station on life support past its scheduled retirement in 2028.

We’re urging the Treasurer to stick to his word and reduce emissions by 75 per cent, which means closing our ageing and increasingly unreliable coal-fired power stations as planned.

We’re also calling on the Crisafulli Government to be transparent about the advice received from Queensland’s Productivity Commission relating to Queensland's renewable energy and emissions reduction targets.

Queenslanders have a right to know what advice the Government has been given and to have their say on the future of our energy system and economy.

It’s been disappointing that the Queensland Productivity Commission undertook their review without undertaking any formal consultation, and now it’s looking like the Crisafulli Government’s Energy Roadmap will similarly be released without any community input.

We want to see what’s in the best interest of Queenslanders and our precious environment, and that’s an energy plan that supports the urgent development of well-sited renewable energy backed by storage to replace our increasingly unreliable and retiring coal power stations.

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