PDC: Energy, Environment and Climate Change Policy

Working group report
This working group was tasked with developing policy to deal with climate and environmental issues. This policy is in the development stage, so if you want to contribute email policydev@pirateparty.org.au.

Preamble
Pirate Party Australia supports science-based action and therefore accepts the scientific view on the need to address climate change. The welfare of future generations is important enough to warrant application of the precautionary principle in our environmental management. Accordingly, Pirate Party Australia seeks to step up our response to climate change capitalise on the vast potential that science and technology now offer.

A 21st century energy grid
Australia has significant natural advantages as an energy producer. However, persistent under-investment has left an energy model riddled with problems. Obsolete coal power plants across the nation have deteriorated to the point that accumulated maintenance costs have topped $100 billion. A “business as usual” approach will pass the entire burden of costs to consumers and businesses in the form of perpetually rising energy prices. This comes on top of the hidden costs coal power already imposes our health, waterways and ecosystems.



Investment in renewable energy generation offers more than just a chance to liberate the economy from these costs. Renewable generation can democratise energy markets. Onsite solar generation and community ownership is the 21st century alternative to centralised state- and corporate-owned grid monopolies. We believe the trend toward solar energy generation should be supported through the introduction of a strong and unified national solar feed-in tariff. Feed-in tariffs have been highly successful in developing baseload renewable grids overseas, and the unification of piecemeal state schemes will provide essential certainty and simplicity for businesses. The Pirate Party would seek to extend solar tariffs to larger scale solar installations, and support businesses and community centres as well as households. To offset energy poverty, vouchers would be distributed to low income earners to enable installation of solar PV, solar hot water systems, or energy efficiency improvements.

Pirate Party Australia also supports improvements to energy efficiency standards for vehicles and buildings and a roll-out of facilities for electric vehicles (EVs). EV batteries are valuable components of a renewable energy grid since their capacity to act as 'dispatchable demand' is useful to help to balance energy supply.

The weight of scientific evidence clearly shows that the uncontrolled burning of remaining global coal reserves will have severe effects on global climate, with impacts on our ecology, oceans, cities and farms. This manifests the principle of privatised profits and socialised losses, which the Pirate Party opposes. Pirate Party Australia will accordingly will seek to implement a phased-in tax on coal exports, which will ultimately bring exported emissions under the same carbon price as domestic emissions. A fixed carbon price is an effective way to drive investment, cut emissions and reduce taxes on work and savings, and is less opaque and volatile than an ETS. Revenue raised through taxing coal exports will fund climate change measures at no cost to domestic taxpayers.

While the changes required to our energy model are significant, the benefits will be immense. A transformation of Australia’s energy grid will meet climate change objectives and reduce the debilitating costs of dirty power sources on economic growth, public health, and waterways. Investment in our farms and regions will provide economic stimulus, create tens of thousands of skilled jobs, and improve the resilience of farms and small businesses by allowing them to 'dual use' their land and premises to supply energy. Our economy will benefit from lower and less volatile energy prices and the avoidance of dead-weight costs attached to maintaining an ageing coal grid.

Investment in renewable energy is more than just a response to climate change: it is an important economic reform.

Preserving Australia’s ecology
Pirate Party Australia believes management of our environment should be holistic and reflect the best available scientific knowledge. Cases such as the Murray-Darling system demonstrate the risks of splitting ecosystem management across state borders: a more unified approach which recognises the interconnections and complexity of ecosystems is needed. Accordingly, we will press for the development of a comprehensive biodiversity matrix to better classify land and ocean ecosystems. This will underpin a more scientific approach to land management, which can be further enhanced through expanded Federal environmental oversight conducted under an independent authority. A biodiversity matrix will also provide the public with essential information about the ecological health of our continent and inform potential expansion of our critical national parks.

We also urge a halt to coal seam gas (CSG) extraction, which is currently being undertaken from a position of profound ignorance regarding its impacts on rivers, groundwater, and food security. Given the emerging evidence of fugitive emissions leaks and other unforeseen impacts, we believe hydraulic fracturing should be subject to a moratorium until meaningful evidence is available to demonstrate its safety.

Questions of ecology and energy are ultimately about adjudicating between the rights of current and future generations. The Pirate Party believes in the adoption of an open and scientific framework to help inform these difficult questions.

Policy text
The Pirate Party would seek to implement the following measures.

Accelerate investment in renewable energy

 * Combine state solar feed-in tariffs into a single national tariff.
 * Extend tariff coverage to include solar PV and large scale solar (including solar thermal).
 * Extend availability of tariffs to households, farms, businesses and community facilities including schools.
 * Subject tariff contracts on offer to annual reviews and cost containment through automatic degression as a function of the quantity of renewables deployed.
 * Provide low income earners with vouchers to fund installation of solar PV systems, solar hot water systems, or improvements in energy efficiency.
 * Where properties are rented, vouchers for solar hot water or energy efficiency upgrades will be provided to landlords for use only on the subject rental property.
 * The ACCC would have authority to ensure that prices are not increased for the purpose of receiving voucher money without providing equivalent products and services in good faith.
 * Funding for solar tariffs and vouchers will be drawn from revenue obtained through a carbon price on coal exports.
 * Extend the Renewable Energy Target to 80,000 GWh by 2030.
 * Promote energy storage and baseload generation by increasing the number of renewable certificates offered for generation at peak periods.
 * Protect and restore climate change instruments including the Carbon Farming Initiative, the Climate Change Authority, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and ARENA.
 * Provide an additional $60 million over 3 years to the CSIRO energy storage research program to support research into cheaper storage solutions for solar and other renewable power.

Improve energy efficiency and carbon mitigation

 * Restore a carbon tax with pricing set to the 2014-15 level and price increases fixed at CPI + 5% p/a.
 * Extend coverage to include heavy on-road transport.
 * Extend coverage to include coal exports, subject to a phase-in period, and exemptions where buyers utilise carbon capture and storage technology.
 * Restore full funding to the Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program.
 * Improve energy efficiency for vehicles.
 * Adopt EU 2020 vehicle fuel efficiency standards including the passenger vehicle target of 95g CO2/Km by 2023.
 * Form a panel of government and industry representatives to develop a plan for roll-out of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and development of an Australian standard for EV rechargers.
 * Assistance to private operators who wish to operate recharging stations will be offered through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
 * A corporation will be created with joined State and Federal Government ownership to lease recharging sites on public land.
 * Improve energy efficiency for buildings.
 * Enforce the 2006 Council of Australian Governments Joint Communiqué requiring nationwide deployment of smart meters.
 * Protect smart meter data to ensure it cannot be used to gather law enforcement intelligence without a court order.
 * Ensure non-residential buildings are subject to transparent disclosure of energy ratings, with performance-based standards applied to all retrofits and new buildings.
 * Require rented properties to meet an energy efficiency minimum standard (encompassing provision of energy and water efficient fixed appliances and fixed heating) by 2015.
 * Vouchers will be provided to allay costs (see above).
 * Allow Clean Energy Finance loans related to energy efficiency to be collected through utility meters.
 * Support carbon mitigation through improved land management.
 * Provide an additional $60 million over 3 years to the CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture Flagship program, to support research, development and deployment of carbon sequestration including biochar.
 * Deploy 'Green Corps' to assist farmers with cost-free reforestation and re-vegetation of marginal land.

Improve land management to protect biodiversity

 * Develop a biodiversity matrix to classify land and ocean ecosystems and species distribution.
 * Information collected will be published, and will inform land use changes, development approvals, and management of national parks.
 * Species reported as being at risk of extinction will be listed as “notifiable”.
 * Funding cuts to the Biodiversity Fund will be reversed.
 * Expand the environmental oversight of the federal government to cover climate, rivers and water areas, national parks and forests.
 * Provide independent statutory status to areas overseeing environmental approvals.
 * Ensure clear channels exist for local and community input, with autonomy devolved to regional communities and expert bodies in matters of purely local impact.
 * Ban port expansions, dredging and offshore dumping of dredge spoil within World Heritage waters.
 * Provide additional $20 million funding to the Reef Rescue program to support management of water quality issues in the Barrier Reef.
 * Increase national park thresholds to cover 15% of land in Australia, with a representative sample of at least 80% of regional ecosystems protected in each bio-region.
 * Engage NGOs in management of feral animals, with options to include the creation of fenced-off “arks” where endangered native species can be re-introduced.
 * Reverse the burden of proof currently applying to the 'Assessment and Approvals' section of the National Parks Act in areas where the biodiversity matrix records high biodiversity value.
 * Institute a moratorium on extraction of coal seam gas through hydraulic fracturing.
 * The moratorium will apply to new mines and additional fracturing on current mines in metropolitan areas.
 * Periodical reviews will assess evidence and present recommendations to the Government on the scientific case for lifting or modifying the moratorium.
 * Extraction and exploration in or around water catchment areas and aquifers will be permanently banned.
 * Landowners will be granted a right to refuse exploitation of coal seam gas on land they own.