Australia set to ‘unleash’ investment in renewable energy market

Australia’s newly installed minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, is set to address the Climate Change Investment and Finance Summit in Sydney, where he will detail the government’s climate policies and outline jobs and investment opportunities in the energy sector.

In his first major speech as minister for climate change and energy, Bowen will tell investors that the new government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants to unleash private investment in renewable energy projects.

“For too long, Australians had been led to believe that climate change posed a choice: The environment or the economy; the cities or the regions,” he will tell the summit, which is being hosted by the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), a collaboration of Australian and New Zealand investors. “Good climate action can benefit us all because the truth is that good energy policy is key to good economic policy … Australia is under new management and Australia is open for business in the new global economy.”

Earlier this week, Albanese committed Australia to a more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction target of 43% by the end of the decade, based on 2005 emissions levels. He said the nation’s new 2030 target will provide much-needed certainty for investors.

“What businesses have been crying out for is investment certainty,” Albanese said. “The certainty that they need to invest over a longer time frame than the political cycle of three years.”

The IGCC said the renewable energy sector represents an enormous investment opportunity. But IGCC CEO Rebecca Mikula-Wright said a lack of credible climate targets and policies has impeded investment in Australia, even though “investors stand ready to invest billions of dollars into climate positive solutions for Australia’s future.”