Beyond Zero Emissions welcomes Australia’s clean economic recovery: breakdown of budget measures

Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) welcomes the series of Federal Budget measures that will harness the potential of new energy technology to help Australia recover from the Covid-19 downturn and position our industry for future jobs and investment growth.

The Federal Government has committed over $3.5b towards initiatives that will help accelerate our transition to a more economically and environmentally sustainable future.

Some of these include:

• $1.4b in funding for ARENA;
• $250m to accelerate critical transmission infrastructure that will unlock more renewables;
• $1.5b to modernise manufacturing which increasingly means the electrification of our industrial base;
• $67m for microgrids to replace diesel generation in remote communities;
• $52m to increase energy productivity in homes and businesses;
• $190m to reboot our recycling sector; and
• Over $370m towards developing Australia’s Hydrogen capabilities.

On the other side of the ledger, $53m has been committed towards gas development.

Commenting on these measures, the Executive Chair of Beyond Zero Emissions, Eytan Lenko said:

“It is now beyond doubt that the economic megatrends of digitisation and decarbonisation have only picked up steam through the COVID-19 crisis and we need to support and accelerate that process.

“Best-practice economic and regulatory support from government facilitates existing trends in order to bring forward investment, innovation and jobs and to de-risk private sector participation.

“The recent policies released by the Government and the measures announced in the Budget are a promising endorsement of the benefits of a clean economic recovery.

“There are trillions of dollars of private capital looking for clean projects to back. A global race is underway to be the friendliest and lowest risk home for that capital to be invested and for new technologies and solutions to be developed. Australia has an enormous opportunity to capitalise on our comparative advantage in renewable energy and to upgrade our industry and infrastructure to harness the benefits of new technology energy.

“Australia’s developed economy, good governance, educated population, trading relationships and world-leading renewable resources mean that we can be a front-runner if we seize this moment.”

Economist Chris Murphy’s analysis of the Beyond Zero Emissions Million Jobs Plan shows that Federal support for clean recovery initiatives would boost private investment by $25 billion annually, or nearly 2% of GDP and increase real wages by 2% out to 2035 – all without a significant increase in public expenditure.

Beyond Zero Emissions is one of Australia’s most respected climate change think-tanks. We produce independent research which shows that Australia can thrive through a transition to a zero-emissions economy.

The Million Jobs Plan maps out a bold job creation framework through:

• The acceleration of new energy transmission and storage projects to unleash an abundance of cheap, clean energy for manufacturing and position Australia a true global renewable energy superpower.
• Implementing a national housing retrofit program targeted at eliminating bills for 2.5 million low-income households.
• Building 150,000 new zero-energy social housing dwellings.
• Building electrified transport infrastructure such as electric bus fleets with localised and regional manufacturing.