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The Energy

Councils want a future fund for renewables

Published about 4 hours ago • 6 min read

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Hey Reader, in today's edition:

  • Intergenerational REZ benefits
  • Quantifying Scarborough's risk to climate
  • New challenge for North West Shelf

Councils get strategic

Armidale Regional Council Mayor Sam Coupland has a message for renewable energy developers: “We just don't need a 20 or 30-year sugar hit. If this is going to be done to our community, we need the intergenerational benefit.”

Coupland, who back in 2022 set up the ‘Coalition of Renewable Energy Mayors,’ is now championing the idea of renewable energy future funds, mandating that developers working with his council put up community contributions on the basis of how many megawatts their projects are rated at, pooled to a fund with an independent chair, rather than individual community projects.

Developer TagEnergy, which recently acquired Australia’s ACE Power, says it’s actively engaging with a number of councils across Australia on the topic.

Expert view

“Acceptance of large-scale energy development is not trivial and it's not about trinkets and shiny things. It's make or break, and engaging effectively in the right way with the right information is critical.

There are some lessons learned in terms of how we do that. It needs to be coordinated. It cannot be left up to individual proponents to come and go in a piecemeal way, engaging singularly about their individual project. It needs to have that conversation at a regional scale."

Kathy Witt
Associate Professor in Social Performance, University of Queensland

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Scarborough’s emissions ‘far from negligible’

University researchers say a science-based approach can be used to quantify the consequences of specific fossil fuel production, making it possible to assess whether new projects fall within acceptable levels of environmental and societal risk.

The level of emissions from Woodside Energy’s (ASX: WDS) Scarborough project, for example, where production is on track to start in 2026 and continue for more than three decades – will cause, on average, 0.00039 degrees Celsius of additional global warming and expose an additional 560,000 people around the world to unprecedented heat, according to research published in the Nature journal Climate Action.

“The majority of Australia’s new fossil fuel projects describe their anticipated greenhouse gas outputs as ‘negligible’ in the context of global emissions and claim they’re unable to measure contributions to global warming, while also ignoring expected impacts.
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The site’s developers claim it is not possible to link greenhouse gas emissions from Scarborough with climate change or any particular climate-related impact given that the estimated emissions associated with Scarborough are negligible in the context of existing and future predicted global greenhouse gas concentrations. But our research shows emissions output from this new project is far from negligible.”
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Co-author Professor Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick​
Australian National University

Woodside says gas from the Scarborough project, located 375km off the Pilbara coast in the Carnarvon Basin, will be one of the lowest-carbon sources of LNG available to Asian customers as the reservoir contains less than 0.1% carbon dioxide and the processing facility has new design efficiencies.

A methodology known as the Transient Climate Response to CO2 Emissions (TCRE) was used to calculate the contribution of an individual project’s emissions to global warming. The TCRE, which combines knowledge of earth systems, direct observations, and climate model simulations, is a key tool used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

By 2049, Australian emissions from the Scarborough project alone will comprise almost half (49%) of the country’s entire annual emissions budget, according to the calculations.

Expert view

“These findings contrast sharply with claims that individual fossil fuel projects will have negligible impacts. In this case study alone, it is shown that the additional warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the Scarborough project will persist for multiple decades to centuries and cause long-term environmental and social impacts.”

Andrew King
Associate Professor in Climate Science, University of Melbourne

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Catch Up

Capital

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Vulcan Energy (ASX: VUL) signed an offtake agreement with a Glencore subsidiary to provide battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate from its Lionheart Project in Germany. Glencore was the final offtake agreement required for Phase One project financing, Vulcan said, joining Stellantis, Umicore and LG Energy Solution.

Western Australia’s Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) received a $75 million takeover bid from Canadian uranium miner IsoEnergy (TSE: ISO). Toro’s flagship Wiluna Uranium Project has historic federal and state government environmental approvals for mining uranium at the Centipede, Lake Way, Millipede and Lake Maitland deposits and the company believes the approvals are still valid.

Projects

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The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and and Friends of Australian Rock Art have independently launched Federal Court challenges to Environment Minister Murray Watt’s approval of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas hub extension. The ACF says Murray's consideration of economic benefits left out key aspects. “We will also argue that the Minister failed to consider the physical effects of climate change as an ‘impact’. If successful, this case could reshape how climate impacts are assessed in Australia,” ACF General Counsel Adam Beeson said.

Policy

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Community groups will rally outside NSW Parliament House this morning to call on the Minns government to refer its overhaul of planning laws to an inquiry, saying the “flawed” Environmental Planning and Assessment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025 — due to be debated on Tuesday — increases corruption risks and makes it easier for climate and environmentally damaging mining projects to get the green light.

Technology

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The Melbourne-headquartered Global CCS Institute’s latest Global Status of CCS report found the financial sector is becoming increasingly engaged with carbon capture and storage, supported by the emergence of specialised insurance products. The push for low-carbon, firm power generation is also sparking interest in CCS twinned with gas-fired power plants, especially in North America, where electricity demand is surging due to AI, data centres, and digital infrastructure.

Climate

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While Australia continues to lobby to host COP31, scientists have warned COP30 delegates that dangerous climate tipping points are being crossed. The warning in the international report by 160 researchers, which synthesises the science to estimate points of no return, comes just weeks ahead of this year’s summit in Brazil. (Reuters)

Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and Japan ranked as most active in addressing climate change adaptation, according to BloombergNEF, with Saudi Arabia and Russia among the least prepared. The scorecard is intended to inform investors and bridges a gap in current analyses, which often neglect the preparedness of a host country when assessing asset-level exposure.

People

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Dr Sasha Courville has been appointed CEO of the member-led Carbon Market Institute. She has formerly held sustainability roles with organisations including NAB and Bank Australia.

Research

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If renewable projects continue to be delayed by disorderly transition processes and transmission bottlenecks, up to 2.8GW of additional gas capacity could be required to meet electricity demand. But relying on gas-fired generation to cover emerging reliability gaps is neither straight-foward nor cost-effective, with lead times for new gas turbines at over five years, according to a report by Nexa Advisory’s Stephanie Bashir and Jordan Ferrari.

Random

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Telcos are stocking up on back-up generators and portable mobile phone towers to prepare for power outages during natural disasters. (The Nightly)

What's On

October 15​
​The Energy Q&A with the NEM Review panel

NEM Review panel Tim Nelson, Paula Conboy, Ava Hancock and Phil Hirschhorn will speak at this webinar moderated by The Energy Advisory Board Member Anna Hancock.

October 16-17​
IGCC Summit 2025: Decoding the transition

Generation Investment Management Founding Partner and former US Vice President Al Gore will headline this Sydney event from the Investor Group on Climate Change. Other speakers include NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe, Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean, Energy Efficiency Council CEO Luke Menzel, ARENA Associate Director Tanya Hodgeson and Net Zero Economy Agency CEO David Shankey.

October 22
​2025 Order of Australia Lecture

Emeritus Professor Mark Howden will deliver this year’s Order of Australia keynote - Go hard or go slow on climate change? What’s in the national interest? - at this Canberra event.

October 23
​Understanding Australia's 2035 Net Zero numbers

Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean will speak at this UTS event in Sydney, in conversation with Professor Stuart White, Director of the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures.

October 27
​The real costs of the transition

Powerlink CEO Paul Simshauser will speak at this lunchtime webinar from The Energy, alongside Aurecon Managing Director, Energy (Australia) Paul Gleeson and moderated by Beyond Zero Emissions CEO Heidi Lee.

October 29-30
​All Energy Australia

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, incoming Clean Energy Council CEO Jackie Trad and Pacific Green CEO Joel Alexander are among the speakers at this year’s All Energy event in Melbourne.

November 5
​National Press Club address

Outgoing ASIC Chair Joe Longo will address the National Press Club on “Open for opportunity: Taking charge of the future of our financial markets” at this Canberra event.

Level 1, 60 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW 2000
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