REEEP

Australian BCSE Conference Outcomes

Sydney, 08.06.2007 - Richards Peter

With the backdrop of an Australian budget announcement on the opening evening, and a rapidly shifting political agenda on climate change, the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BSCE) hosted its largest annual conference in Sydney. Under the banner “Powering Australia’s future, clean, secure, affordable”, the gathering saw some 400 delegates addressing the domestic environment that is driving a growing interest in sustainable energy developments.

With the backdrop of an Australian budget announcement on the opening evening, and a rapidly shifting political agenda on climate change, the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BSCE) hosted its largest annual conference in Sydney. Under the banner “Powering Australia’s future, clean, secure, affordable”, the gathering saw some 400 delegates addressing the domestic environment that is driving a growing interest in sustainable energy developments.

The continuing drought in a number of areas (no rain has fallen for more than 10 years in some regions) has heightened public concern over climate change and the impact that this is having on a large section of the country.  This is leading to increasing pressure on the Australian government to put immediate programmes in place to address these issues.

The conference presentations were wide ranging from the climate change policies that are in place at a State level to those being established by the Commonwealth Government; corporate attention to their carbon footprints and their responses to this; the mainstreaming of clean energy investments; the considerable opportunities for energy savings through residential, commercial and industrial improvements; and national and international business and investment opportunities within the clean energy market.

The conference was also an opportunity for the launch of the Local Government Clean Energy Forum, established in response to the growing pressure on city and regional authorities to lead the way in providing very visible programmes to address the causes and impacts of climate change.

In contrast to addresses made during the BCSE conference held in Brisbane in May 2006, it is clear that the Commonwealth government now acknowledges the reality of climate change and the urgent need to be seen to be addressing mitigation and emission reductions. Spurred on by an early mandatory renewable energy target scheme (MRET) the Australian renewables industry has grown rapidly, though it slowed as the MRET targets were met and not increased.

There are several Commonwealth policies and programmes that support technology commercialisation, rebates on residential PV installations, subsidies for off grid renewables and a A$75m solar cities programme.  At a State level there are a number of market based and mandated certificate schemes and greenhouse gas reduction targets of 60% of year 2000 by 2050 are in place which seems certain to help strengthen the industry even further. Ironically, while there is no agreement between those at the State and Commonwealth levels on the specific mechanisms to address climate change, both sides are developing their own carbon mechanisms, each of which may have a striking similarity.

The impact of climate change is perhaps more apparent in Australia than any other part of the globe and while the Commonwealth government has been reluctant to acknowledge this until recently (resisting pressure to sign the Kyoto protocol on the basis that Australia’s economy would be unreasonably disadvantaged) the clean energy debate in Australia has clearly passed the tipping point. 

From an industry standpoint the opportunities for growth through providing new and innovative technology solutions are improving every day as evidenced by the positive and constructive debates provided during the BSCE conference, the strong presence of a cross section of industry representatives and the solid support of State and local government agencies. There are still many hurdles ahead but the conference reflected a significant change in attitude and opportunities from the environment in the market just twelve months ago.