NSW must focus on household electrification in its new climate targets

The New South Wales Labor Government has announced it will enshrine the state’s emissions reduction targets in law, including a 2030 target of “at least” 50 per cent, and net zero by 2050.

The new legislation, which delivers on an election promise, will also establish an independent Net Zero Commission to monitor the state’s progress to net zero, including through annual reports to ensure parliamentary transparency and accountability.

The move to enshrine climate targets in the law has been welcomed across the board as a sign the relatively new state government is – as the Greens put it – “taking serious and legislative change to limit emissions and slow climate change.”

However, although Rewiring Australia regards the targets as “a solid step forward in our collective fight against global heating,” they maintain the Minns government must put household electrification powered by renewable energy at the centre of their net zero plans.

“Electrification is the rapid, cost-effective and proven path to significantly cut emissions while permanently slashing energy bills," says Dan Cass, Executive Director of Rewiring Australia. "To truly pivot towards a sustainable future, household electrification must be central to this strategy.”

Cass also said the Government’s proposed Net Zero Commission, should have a reserve bank-style independence to ensure honest feedback and a focus beyond the electoral cycle.

“The energy market we have right now was designed for heavily polluting coal and gas. The Commission must drive a new framework that empowers households and businesses and industry to generate, store, and share clean electricity.

Cass also suggested the Commission have “a live dashboard” which outlines the progress of renewable energy projects and include metrics for the amount of money invested in households and industry, including the number of fully electrified homes with solar panels, the amount of carbon abated, and the process of delivering regulatory reform and workforce development.

“The Commission must drive a new framework that empowers households and businesses and industry to generate, store, and share clean electricity,” says Cass.

“We also need enhanced investment in community level infrastructure such as batteries, EV chargers and network upgrades.”

Other groups have raised concerns about the NSW Government’s lack of ambition on their targets.

The Greens have said that net-zero emissions by 2050 is no longer considered an ambitious or near-term enough target to align the state with the Paris climate goals of limiting global warming to 1.5°C or below.

And a broad range of global climate authorities and experts are now calling for net-zero emissions targets to be fast-tracked to 2035 and even as early as 2030, to retain any hope of keeping dangerous climate change at bay.

Among them, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering has called for Australia to get to net zero 15 years quicker than its current federally legislated goal of 2050 to be more consistent with a 1.5℃ trajectory.

“The Paris Agreement requires that member states increase their targets to reach net-zero every five years,” a statement from Greens climate spokesperson Sue Higginson said.

“The Australian government will have to up their target of net-zero by 2050 when the next five year review is conducted in 2026 and the legislated target of net zero by 2050 in NSW will then be out of date and will need to be set again.”

Others, like the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), point out that legislated targets are rather pointless if the government intervenes to keep Eraring, one of Australia’s most polluting coal plants, open longer.

“The Minns government can’t prop up the largest coal plant in the country without seriously undermining its climate agenda,” the NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford said on Thursday.

“The science is very clear on what needs to happen to meet this responsibility – we need to reduce emissions across every sector of the economy.”

“If the NSW government is serious about achieving these targets, we hope to see immediate action taken to ensure we can close coal-fired power station Eraring on schedule,” added Nexa Advisory CEO Stephanie Bashir.

“If we take action now to accelerate the current build rate of renewable generation, storage, and transmission we will get the job of the clean energy transition done on time and leave energy users and the nation much better off in coming years.”

An earlier version of this article was first published on RenewEconomy. You can read it here.