Under Grattan’s eSafeguard Plan, Electricity Is Like A Baby Bird: It Goes Cheap

Subscribe to LMSU’s Patreon for a sector plan BoCo bonanza!  All aboard folks! Team LMSU is continuing our BoCo odyssey, adventuring through each of the six sector decarbonisation plans. AND we’re bringing friends! That’s right, we’re calling in even nerdier reinforcements and experts to join us as we venture on. This week, we’ll be joined by Helen Rowe from Climateworks to talk transport and infrastructure.—With a promise to provide guidance on the next five years ‘and beyond’ your intrepid hosts digested the Queensland Government Energy Roadmap 2025. It provides a major reset in some respects with continuity in others. Grabbing the headlines was the telegraphed decision to run government-owned coal assets to end of technical life but much detail still ‘TBC’ when it comes to how decisions on coal will be made.Transmission is getting a big overhaul, renewables still gonna be big but maybe not so much on the wind front. More questions raised than answered here for now as Luke is left pondering the wisdom of scrapping a bicameral parliament in the great northern state!Our main courseWith a tantalising title of ‘Bills Down, Emissions Down: A practical path to net zero electricity’ your intrepid hosts are having what the Grattan Institute is serving! A timely provocation from Alison Reeve, Tony Wood, Dominic Jones and Ben Jefferson on the value - and they argue necessity - of reinstating a price on carbon in the electricity sector. The world has changed since the last time carbon pricing was discussed in the energy sector and the folks from Grattan argue the Safeguard Mechanism presents a ready made vehicle to get the job done. And they don’t forget to remind us of earlier work in their report Climate Phoenix that shows how the Safeguard could evolve into a broader emissions trading scheme, Much food for thought ahead of the 2026-27 Safeguard review!One more thingsTennant’s One More Thing is: his appearance at an event hosted by the University of Adelaide, festively titled, ‘Livin La Vida BoCA’! No guesses as to what that was about: a whisper of chat about border carbon adjustments and our man Mr Reed manifests!Frankie’s One More Thing is: a frustrating one-year delay to the vote by the International Maritime Organisation on the adoption of an emissions levy on shipping, following concerted lobbying from the Trump administration.Luke’s One More Thing is: the long awaited and celebrated launch of the Commercial Building Disclosure Roadmap! *Finally* After previous reviews gathered dust on shelves, we finally have a plan for expanding use of Australia’s globally leading NABERS rating scheme in disclosing the nergy performance of more building types. Huzzah!And that’s it for now, Summerupperers. There is now a one-stop-shop for all your LMSU needs: head toletmesumup.netto support us on Patreon, procure merch, find back episodes, and leave us a voicemail!