Net zero by 2050 ‘just ideology’: Scott Morrison

Scott Morrison, the former prime minister who committed Australia to a net zero emissions target by 2050, has declared the pledge is “just ideology”, providing impetus for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley from a senior figure in her faction to walk back the Coalition policy.

Morrison’s intervention came as Energy Minister Chris Bowen assured households that electricity bills would fall because of a surge of cheap renewable energy flooding the grid.

In an update to be released on Thursday, the energy market operator reveals that a surge in wind, solar and hydropower has cut wholesale electricity prices by more than a quarter across Australia’s eastern states since July, even as chilly weather increased demand and more electric cars were plugged into the network.

Some of Ley’s more moderate allies want to retain the 2050 target to appeal to the urban voters who deserted the Coalition at the past two elections, while others say the 2050 deadline imposes unacceptable costs on the economy.

“Net zero at any cost on any rigid timetable is not policy, it’s just ideology,” Morrison said in a post on LinkedIn. His declaration follows a stronger denunciation by former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who signed up to the net zero emissions target alongside Morrison.

The Albanese government has legislated a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 as part of Australia’s commitment under the Paris Agreement, and it has set an interim target to cut emissions by at least 62 per cent by 2035.

The government promised at the 2022 election that its renewable energy plan – to boost clean power supply to 82 per cent of the grid by 2030 – would slash power bills by $275 by 2025, but instead they have risen rapidly for various reasons, including conflicts overseas.

However, new figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator show that in the three months to September 30, prices across the eastern seaboard grid have fallen 27 per cent from the same period last year, and 38 per cent compared with the previous quarter, as wind and solar power increased and coal power’s contribution slumped.

The Albanese government seized on the figures to combat criticism by the opposition that its clean energy agenda is making energy unaffordable, and that Australia’s biggest aluminium smelter, Tomago, cited power costs when it signalled its potential closure.

“The drop in wholesale price is good news and should flow through to retail energy prices in the near term,” Bowen said.

Declines in wholesale electricity prices – what retailers pay for power before supplying it to consumers – do not directly affect household power bills but could flow through to consumers next year, especially if the falls are sustained. Regulators take average wholesale electricity prices into account each May when they reset each state’s price caps for standard power offers.

But Morrison and Coalition MPs, including Ley, have argued that Labor’s legislated net zero 2050 deadline will increase costs over time. They want to remove the target from legislation yet retain the aspiration to achieve net zero.

Morrison signed Australia’s first net zero pledge in October 2021, along with then-Nationals leader Joyce, before the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow and the 2022 federal election.

However, he said that much has changed since 2021, with the rise in artificial intelligence and data centres driving investment into energy generation. He also said the election of anti-renewables US President Donald Trump had reduced the risk that funds would dry up if Australia did not match the US climate commitment under its former administration.

“In 2021, we were also facing a potential capital strike on Australia from overseas investors as they responded to US policy under President Biden,” Morrison said.

“Private capital, not politics, was always going to be the answer. This remains the sensible approach.”

The Liberal and Nationals parties are now conducting separate reviews of net zero.

As first reported by this masthead, the Liberal Party is heading towards a policy of removing the 2050 date from legislation to make it aspirational and exempting heavy industries.

However, some moderates want to retain the target. Liberal moderate and opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg said that “you’ve got to keep net zero”.

The Nationals’ review is expected to deliver a more hardline rejection, with the process led by fossil-fuel advocate Senator Matt Canavan.

Canavan declared during the 2022 election campaign that net zero was “dead” due to waning international support, but Morrison rejected his claim at the time.

“That debate has been done in the Coalition and it’s resolved and our policy is set out very clearly,” Morrison said. “We take commitments we make very seriously.”

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