by Hamish Read

As Penny addressed the national Fabians AGM, the first thing she acknowledged, following the traditional owners of the land, was that action on climate change is urgent and long overdue; that we knew of the problem in Australia as early as 30 years ago. She didn’t say as much but this is an indictment on successive governments and generations who have cleaved to business as usual, kicking the can down the road, leaving the herculean task of adaptation so much steeper for younger generations now living. 

“We can’t ignore climate change anymore,” said Penny.

“We have already seen warming above 1.5 degrees; governments are taking action now but we should have started this as far back as 1972.” 

The 1.5 degree limit was first agreed in Paris in 2015, based on thousands of studies that outlined the worst impacts of climate change beyond this level. For example, the earliest large-scale collection of such studies by Stern and later Garnaut listed, among others, the acidification of the world’s oceans, the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, more intense and frequent megafires and weather events, widespread agricultural collapse, climate refugees and resource wars. An analysis of BOM data by Read (2020) found Australia had already surpassed the 1.5 degree limit as the megafires took off in 2020 (see https://lens.monash.edu/@environment/2020/03/18/1379827/how-much-did-climate-change-cause-the-australian-megafires). As of April 2024, the European Union’s climate agency, Copernicus, said Europe is warming at twice the rate expected and now running 2.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, compared to 1.3C higher globally.

In Australia, said Penny, the issue was not taken seriously until the late 1980s. The first serious discussion was led by NSW Labor Senator Graham Richardson in 1989, when federal cabinet first considered reducing greenhouse emissions by 20 per cent by 2005. Had this gone through, Australia would have been a world-leader in climate equality rather than following the laggardly belligerence of the USA. 

“My first reflection in all of this,” said Penny, “is that climate adaptation is a wicked problem and the Fabians do love a wicked problem.” A wicked problem, a term also used by Ross Garnaut in his series of reports, Penny said is defined from the outset by interlocking issues, often unformulated and amorphous, with confusing interactions and many stakeholders with conflicting interests, conflicting values, and yet having vast implications for the whole system.

Despite early ambitions around 1990, Penny admits that Australia has always been a laggard when it comes to climate change. Former Liberal senator for SA Robert Hill, now a professor of sustainability at the University of Sydney, was a moderate who took the issue seriously. But Howard refused, shutting down anything that might lead to the emissions trading scheme later suggested by Ross Garnaut. Only recently, by the way, Garnaut calculated Australia would be collecting $70 billion annually had the scheme been adopted. Sadly, the carbon tax went to cabinet in 2003 and was rejected by the Libs, said Penny. 

“But Tony Abbot was the biggest hammer blow.”

Why does the coalition always fail on this? Penny says it comes down to fundamental values in which they embrace extreme individualism and view collective action with profound suspicion. A few, like Robert Hill, have been willing to deal with it on the moderate end of the Liberal party, but there remains a fundamental skepticism driven by this resistance to collective action. 

Says Penny, however, the time for Band-Aid solutions in the current era is well and truly over. Which brings us to more contemporary debate surrounding renewables versus nuclear energy. 

Penny says outright that the debate around nuclear is ridiculous. 

“Australia’s greatest strengths in terms of its future economy resides in renewables. Driven by the best solar and wind resources on the planet, Australia has competitive advantage in these free energy inputs, and low-cost manufacturing could offer the potential to build and export low-carbon products to completely diversify away from fossil fuels. Further to that, green hydrogen and green steel are not fantasies.”

In NSW, says Penny, 80% of coal-fired electricity is now down to 70% and three of the four main stations will be gone before 2035, probably sooner. Indeed, the biggest coal fire power station, Origin-owned Eraring, is due to close in 2033. Penny says the additional two years will help any reliability gap due to delays in renewables roll-out, and help ease any price spikes. 

Answering questions from the floor, Penny addressed the lurking option of nuclear power, which is carbon neutral but hardly clean. She said outright that the nuclear option will take too long, cost too much to build, and nobody will finance it. Nor does anyone want one in their backyard. 

Although Dutton might want to focus on immigration, it’s likely the next election will be fought on the issue of nuclear energy. And this opens a whole new level of debate. Says Penny, “If they think arguments around wind farms are hard, just wait for the vitriol surrounding nuclear.”

As we speak, even Origin and AGL are ramping up efforts for a renewables transition, but despite this, the nationals are using nuclear to obfuscate renewables; this, even though their membership is feeling the real effects of climate change on the land. 

“We are building thousands of kilometres of transmission lines and the Nationals are willing to tell untruths about this in support of nuclear — that we won’t even need renewables, windfarms and the like, but we will. It’s an outright lie.”

Penny reports that across the central west renewable zone in NSW fully 90% of landholders are now signed up in support of renewables and the infrastructure work is massive. 

“There’s lots of good news there that we don’t hear, including jobs growth, future readiness with TAFE, and collaboration with first nations land-holders as well. Sadly, the Nationals don’t stand up for their own communities, and, when spruiking nuclear, they are selling them a lie.” 

Meanwhile, by contrast, even the Greens are not as helpful as they could be. 

“Although they support our efforts in net zero, perfectionism can be the enemy of the good when it comes to them, and this attitude has long interfered with their support of good initiatives. There was even a point where they were ready to vote against our collective efforts on net zero.”

Recently, Penny recounted, she had the chance to speak with NSW 2023 Scientist of the Year, oceanographer Prof Trevor McDougall. Penny said he spoke beautifully of his career but finished with a short plea. He said that politicians think climate change is a problem to fix but whatever you’re doing is not enough because we don’t have a planet to waste. Penny, reflecting on his words, finished by saying that what keeps her up at night, for as long as she takes responsibility in this chair, is what can be done, and can we do it fast enough?

Penny Sharpe has been a Member of the NSW Legislative Council since October 2005 and the Minister for Energy and Climate Change, Minister for Environment and Heritage and Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council since 2023.