Regional Energy Transitions in Australia

Australias energy transition is uniquely fascinating: cheap renewables are taking over a coal-dominated system, and the prospect of declining fossil fuel exports is set against the allure of future clean energy exports. These changes create complex dynamics at the regional level. Written by academics who engage at the coalface and practitioners, this collection presents a unique set of insights into how energy transition can be achieved at the regional level. Prof. Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University; Head of Energy, ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions From impossible to possible is a testament to hope and tenacity. Despite the climate wars that have held Australia back, this book shows the progress possible with the power of community and place based development. The lessons learned from these regions demonstrate that the support of and co-creation with workers and community along with Government support make the difference. Valuable reading. Sharan Burrow, former General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation As a non-academic operating at the interface of research and policy I must admit that I like this book a lot. It is deeply anchored in evidence, yet relatively easy to read. It talks about general trends but also dives deeply into relevant case studies. And more importantly, it does not talk about prehistoric cases, rather focusing on the past 15 years a period most readers can actually still remember! As an advocate of fossil fuel transition based in Europe I am also very pleased to have a thorough piece on Australia. Understanding of Australias transition in Europe (and also in the Americas and Africa) is largely anecdotal and patchy so a freshly written comprehensive piece is very much needed. We are now at a critical stage of the global energy transition. Many jurisdictions have analysed and engaged on various options for that transition. But we still lack a global exchange of well-documented regional cases where one can follow the entire journey, understand the drivers and impacts and see both the national and regional contexts. Regional Energy Transitions in Australia: From Impossible to Possible does precisely that for Australia and I hope it will be followed by studies on other jurisdictions. Andrzej Bachowicz, CEO, Climate Strategies People decarbonise society, not technology. This book puts people into the picture, charting region-level experiences across Australia. It gives us a grounded understanding of what works, what doesnt, and why. It makes an appeal for participatory planning against top-down imposition, and puts widespread public support for renewables at the centre of energy policy. The book is a vital antidote to current technocratic and neo-liberal approaches that exclude the public and make transition vulnerable to the fossil fuel lobby. That antidote is urgent and necessary, and not just in Australia, as governments across the globe face a backlash against corporate renewables and big green capital. Prof. James Goodman, Professor of Political Sociology and Director of the Climate Justice Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney As the IPCC has again recently confirmed, limiting global warming to close to 1.5 degrees requires a rapid shift away from unabated coal consumption. This book provides a valuable contribution to this increasingly urgent task by exploring learning from Australia (a major coal producer and exporter) about the development and implementation of equitable policies for accelerating the phase out of coal. Prof. Jan Minx, Head of Working Group on Applied Sustainability Science, Mercator Research Centre on Global Commons and Climate Change, Berlin This book offers a timely perspective on early Australian experiences in the transition away from fossil fuels, an imperative in the global response to climate change.

Gareth A. S. Edwards is Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia, UK and Visiting Fellow at the Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney. He was the recent holder of a Leverhulme International Fellowship for research on justifications for ongoing coal extraction in Australia and India. He also led a British Academy-funded project A just transition away from coal in Australia which sought to understand what just transition means in Australia, the challenges Australia will have to overcome to achieve a just transition away from coal, and the opportunities for reframing just transition ideas in ways which stimulate productive discussions between different stakeholders and communities. John Wiseman is Senior Research Fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures and Adjunct Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne and Chair of the Board of The Next Economy. He is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and reports on climate change policy and energy transitions. His most recent book is Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Amanda Cahill is CEO and Founder of The Next Economy, a non-profit organisation that supports regional communities across Australia to build more resilient, climate safe and socially just economies. Amanda has supported all levels of government, industry, workers and community groups to manage the energy transition across Queensland, the Hunter Valley, the Latrobe Valley and the Northern Territory. Amanda sits on the Australian Energy Market Operators Social Licence Advisory Council and the National Hydrogen Strategy Advisory Council, and is a Senior Research Fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures at the University of Melbourne, an Industry Fellow at the Sydney Policy Lab and a 2023 Churchill Fellow.

1 Creating just regional energy transitions: Key challenges and debates in Australia 2 Energy transition in Port Augusta, South Australia 3 The transition of the Latrobe Valley, Victoria 4 Centring Country and community in the transition of Collie, Western Australia 5 Energy transition in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales 6 From carbon capital to renewable energy superpower: Transforming the industrial hub of Gladstone, Central Queensland 7 Making regional energy transitions possible and making them just: Lessons from recent Australian experience Index