Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: The Energy Users Association of Australia (EUAA) has a strategic level of engagement with climate policy. The association displays a mix of positive and negative positions on key climate-related policies in Australia and largely negative positions on the energy transition, consistently advocating a continued role for fossil gas in the country’s energy mix.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: The EUAA displays limited clear top-line messaging on climate policy. While the association repeatedly supported 2050 net zero targets, for example in a December 2023 consultation submission, it also suggested that the role of governments in driving the transition to net zero should be limited to supporting the transition financially and ensuring sufficient capacity and network infrastructure is in place in an April 2024 consultation submission.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: The EUAA’s transparent engagement with climate-related policy involves a mix of positive and negative positions. The association appeared to support Australia’s Safeguard Mechanism reforms with some exceptions, emphasizing that emissions reduction obligations should be shared across the economy and advocating for an abundance of Australian carbon credit units to ensure access to low-cost offsets in a February 2023 consultation submission on the proposed design of the reforms. In addition, the EUAA took a critical stance on Australia’s Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), appearing to advocate for the eventual removal of renewable energy subsidies while emphasizing concerns around how fossil gas generation will participate in an environment where renewables are underwritten by the CIS in a March 2024 consultation submission.
While the EUAA repeatedly supported Australia’s 2030 greenhouse gas emissions targets, for example in a July 2024 joint letter, it qualified this support in an April 2024 consultation submission, highlighting technological limitations to achieve meaningful emissions reductions in hard-to-abate sectors and appearing to suggest that the targets contribute to increased complexity and costs for the energy system. However, the association supported Australia’s 2030 Renewable Energy Target in a March 2024 consultation submission.
Positioning on Energy Transition: The EUAA adopts negative positions on the energy transition in Australia, consistently advocating a continued role for fossil gas in the energy mix. In its November 2023 consultation submission on Australia’s Future Gas Strategy, the association highlighted “medium to long-term opportunities” for fossil gas in the country, stating that it sees government support for new gas supply as a priority while also appearing to promote renewable gases to eventually substitute fossil gas. Likewise, the EUAA stressed that securing adequate fossil gas must be the “first priority” of the Australian Government in an April 2024 consultation submission and appeared to support the use of biomethane and renewable hydrogen in hard-to-abate sectors, yet also emphasized the commercial viability of these technologies. In addition, the CEO of the EUAA, Andrew Richards, supported the Liberal–National Coalition’s proposal to widen the scope of the Capacity Investment Scheme to include fossil gas in an October 2024 media release, stating that Australia has “an urgent need for more gas.”
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the association’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically.
This summary was last updated in Q4 2024.