Repeal of Renewable Energy Targets "death knell" for LNP promise on climate

New legislation from the Crisafulli Government to repeal the state’s Renewable Energy Targets is the "final nail in the coffin" for the LNP’s election promise to keep the state’s 75% emissions target, according to Queensland’s peak environment group.

This comes as a new Queensland Conservation Council analysis found that Queensland will likely only reach 50 per cent emissions reduction by 2035 in the scenario outlined in the recently released Five Year Energy Roadmap – a staggering 25 per cent less than promised by the Queensland Government.

The amendments tabled today for the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs Act) 2024 include:

• Repealing Queensland’s Renewable Energy Targets of 50% by 2030, 70% by 2032, and 80% by 2035;
• Removing the requirement for a minimum of 54% of Queensland’s electricity generation to be publicly owned.
• Abolishing the Queensland Energy System Advisory Board, Energy Industry Council and Queensland Renewable Energy Jobs Advocate.

Queensland Conservation Council Director, Dave Copeman said

The amendments to repeal the Renewable Energy Targets is the death knell for the LNP’s election promise to take responsible climate action and reach our 75% emissions target.

Throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at our failing coal stations, and repealing our Renewable Energy Targets, does nothing but scare away renewable energy investors at a time when we need new energy supply to drive down emissions and power bills.

The Crisafulli Government is playing Queenslanders for fools by pretending they’re going to keep their emission reduction promises while pledging to keep coal chugging along for decades.

Keeping coal power stations on taxpayer-funded life support and massively expanding polluting gas is incompatible with reducing emissions. The Crisafulli Government is not following through on their word to protect our communities and Great Barrier Reef from the worst impacts of climate change.

Climate change is already having significant impacts on hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders every year through more unnatural weather events. Without urgent action, it is likely that 6.5% of Queensland homes could be uninsurable by 2030.

Queensland’s electricity sector is responsible for 34%, or the lion’s share, of the state’s climate pollution. It’s vital to repower our energy system with renewable energy backed by storage in order to underpin the decarbonisation in other sectors, like transport.

In the Crisafulli Government’s new Energy Roadmap they effectively model a stifling of new renewable energy supply so that we only achieve 55 per cent renewable energy by 2035.

In the past ten years renewable energy grew from less than 3% of Queensland’s electricity needs to 30%. And now solar and battery storage are cheaper than ever.

Moves today by the government to repeal the mandated majority public ownership of Queensland’s energy generation assets are also disappointing. Public ownership can be an important lever to ensure that we're building projects well and in the right places.

Under Queensland’s previous Energy and Jobs Plan, Queensland’s electricity sector emissions were set to reduce by 90% by 2035, whereas this new plan to keep coal running for decades is compatible with a measly 30% reduction on 2005 levels.

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