Net Zero Economy Taskforce starts Australia's whole-of-government decarbonisation

The decarbonisation Australia signed up to through net zero pledges is quietly under way. A specially tasked Net Zero Economy Taskforce is gathering speed, picking up only the slightest of mentions due to the involvement of former Gillard climate minister, former union leader and chair of both IFM Investors and Industry Super Australia, Greg Combet.

After emissions targets are set and safeguard mechanisms covering the big industrial polluters are revamped, a transformation beyond the industrial revolution is supposed to begin. The key is - and this was part of the Paris Agreement - it has to be an energy transition that brings people along with it. New power, new careers, new lives.

Eleven coal-fired power stations closed between 2013 and 2020 with an average notice period of just four months, ACTU president Michele O'Neil said. At least seven more closures are slated in the next five to seven years. Some have been fast-tracked. Meantime, the new world with new ways, renewable energy, is moving in.

"This situation is urgent and it is only going to get more so," the union leader told the National Press Club this week, pressing Labor and attacking a decade-long lack of action by the previous Coalition government.

She said hard-working, high-carbon, blue-collar workers, their families and communities will be left "holding the bag" if the transition is left to "hollow them out" and cast them aside.

"The stakes of that question are way too high to leave to the whims of the private market. The transition will not be fair by accident," Ms O'Neil said.

"What we're talking about here today is a vital missing piece in our climate and energy policy landscape."

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On behalf of those workers, she wants a National Energy Transition Authority with dedicated funding and "real", independent regulatory power to coordinate across multiple government departments and agencies working on the energy transition. Mobilising resources, knocking out duplication and reaching out to communities. Community and business groups, such as the Business Council of Australia, want such an authority too to manage the change.

ACM, publisher of this newspaper, can reveal work is under way.

Changes in the energy sector are impacting every government department and all levels of government. Support was needed yesterday around the country in areas such as the Hunter, the Latrobe Valley, Central Queensland and upper Spencer Gulf. Some First Nations communities have been dependent on fossil fuel royalties.

A new authority was a pledge in Labor's 2021 national platform. There is currently a Greens bill to create a National Energy Transition Authority before Parliament. It won't be supported by the Parliament, but there are still moves in that direction.

The Net Zero Economy Taskforce started with PM&C in September and it was funded in the October budget.

"One way to think about it is that we are not coming back out of this exercise and saying, 'It's all great. There's no more work to do'," Taskforce head and deputy secretary James Chisholm told Senate estimates.

"We are definitely recommending that there needs to be a step-up on supporting communities facing transition and that there are good models available to help do that; and that whether it's an authority or an office, something of that nature, is likely going to feature in our advice. That's probably about as far as I can go."

Energy policy is very deliberately being worked through national cabinet with the states and territories.

Behind the scenes at PM&C, the Net Zero Economy Taskforce is engaging with state and territory governments, setting up relationships.

The incoming NSW Labor government has committed to creating a Hunter clean energy transition authority. Queensland has high ambitions.

Communities visited by the taskforce include Gladstone, the Hunter, the Latrobe Valley, Whyalla, Collie and Lithgow. The taskforce reports it has found a real sense of community ownership over their transition process.

"There is a real tension between a potential Commonwealth role or function accidentally coming in over the top and perhaps undoing some of that good work," the taskforce advised the inquiry into the Greens bill.

What is happening here, particularly on the ground, is a regearing of the public service. Bureaucrats are directly asking people in a non-political way what they need.

Targeted modelling and data work is also being done by the taskforce in an attempt to measure the transition and its impacts.

It is all heading towards the ALP pledge of a National Energy Transition Authority. The key is that it is enduring and non-partisan.

"It's probably safe to say that it's definitely the case that we would be recommending something that gets closer to better coordination and delivery of government services and support to communities impacted by the transition, and that there are a spectrum of options available," Mr Chisholm said.

Labor's 2021 national platform outlines the ALP committed to establishing a statutory authority charged with mitigating the adverse impacts of coal-fired power station closures on regional workforces and communities "as a priority".

"The authority will, as a minimum, have the power to implement job transfer schemes for workers in coal power stations and associated mines allowing for voluntary redundancy and redeployment opportunities to be shared across sites and the capacity to develop and implement economic development programs for impacted regions," the document reads.

High carbon communities are waiting for this to happen.

The Net Zero Economy Taskforce is on a whole-of-government mission to grow decarbonisation as a way of tackling the transition.

It is a game-changer for the staid machinery of government. It is moving to liberate the national transition from the climate change and energy portfolios, and crossing over the entire economy. It has to be enduring and non-partisan.

The energy transition cannot be contained by a particular department. In a similar way, there is a Care and Support Economy Taskforce also running out of PM&C, headed by Tess Bishop.

The taskforce has drawn a dozen or so people from other departments, such as Workplace Relations and Industry. Mike Mrdak, the former secretary of the department of infrastructure, transport and regional development, is also on board.

The net zero target for 2030 and 2050 are commitments. Intense climate changes are happening now.

The global mean temperature is about 1.15 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Natural disasters are intensifying, killing and displacing communities around the globe. Australian research shows the Antarctic overturning circulation is slowing. It may even collapse.

There was September rain, rather than snow, in Greenland for the first time last year.

Australia's energy transition is a longer, more enduring game than the recent politically-charged focus on power price relief. It is about reaching whole communities affected by the energy transition as the whole of government.

Arguably, along with the proposition of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a system-wide response to communities that are decarbonising will be one of the signature, enduring tasks of the Albanese government.

"The government is committed to ensuring that the net zero transformation of the economy boosts opportunities for investment, jobs and prosperity in all communities, including regional communities," a spokesperson for the Prime Minister told ACM.

"The Net Zero Economy Taskforce has consulted widely on pathways to deliver these benefits, including institutional arrangements, and will advise government on next steps over the coming weeks."

Labor is being pressed to look out for impacted communities in a coordinated way and it is warned by union leaders, and others, to not do so would be a "moral failure" and a "massive missed opportunity."

It will be up to the Albanese government if it can deliver.