Part of Greenpeace s campaign against AGL (Image: Greenpeace)
Corporations, being inanimate, have no soul. So I don’t know why people keep expecting them to have a sense of humour. AGL certainly doesn’t.
Greenpeace has been targeting AGL recently, following its identification (via official data) that the company is currently responsible for 8% of Australia’s total carbon emissions that’s a whopping 42.2 million tonnes in 2019-20, nearly 25% of the total for the whole electricity sector.
AGL used to be short for Australian Gas Light, but these days it’s better known as the owner of three massive, ancient coal-fired power stations at Liddell and Bayswater in NSW and Loy Yang A in Victoria. In fact, 85% of the electricity AGL generates comes from coal.
11 May 2021
A 70MW solar and battery project proposed for Morwell in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley has won the unanimous support of the local council – and so far received no objections from the public, either – as it awaits a decision from the state planning department on whether it can go ahead.
The Morwell Solar Farm, which is being developed by ARP Australian Solar, proposes to install 70MW of solar and a between 5-30MW battery storage system (storage duration unspecified) in between the Latrobe Valley towns of Morwell and Churchill – the heart of Victoria’s coal country.
ARP last month submitted an application to build the solar and battery project on two parcels of land on either side of Tramway Road – a site ARP director George Hughes said had been chosen partly to “fill the void” left by decommissioned coal power stations.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace Australia Pacific and AGL will face off in the Federal Court in Sydney on 2 June 2021 in a landmark case that could determine the ability of charities to use corporate logos for the purpose of satire, parody and criticism.
At a directions hearing in the Federal Court today, a date was set for the court showdown between the energy giant and the environmental charity. This comes after AGL requested last week that the court order the urgent removal of its logo from Greenpeace’s campaign which alleges that AGL is “Australia’s biggest corporate climate polluter” on the basis that the use of the logo allegedly infringed AGL’s copyright and trademark. On Friday the court refused to grant this interim order.
Ketan Joshi.
The fossil fuel industry is making false claims that a new hybrid coal/hydrogen power plant will help us reach emissions targets.
The state of New South Wales is currently sitting alongside Victoria as the two states of the “big four” that are actually reducing emissions in a clear, sustained and absolute sense. Though both lean heavily on the land use sector for these falling numbers, a growing role of renewable energy and a notable drop in mining activity (which produces emissions domestically) have played at least some role in both.
What is startlingly clear is that none of this is sufficient for any state to really be on track to net-zero by 2050. Though it will differ across regions, a rough rule we can focus on is that grids should be mostly (95 to 100%) decarbonised by at least 2035 and preferably by the end of the current decade. As I’ve written prior, that baseline is essentially missing from action in most of the debate on electricity, energy and clima
Coal-faced: exposing AGL as Australia’s biggest climate polluter
Description
While this report does not suggest any illegal conduct on the part of any of the individuals or organisations named, it shows that AGL is currently using its position and power to slow the transition to a low carbon economy which is jeopardising both human and planetary health, and it presents alternative approaches that would allow AGL to transition from Australia’s biggest polluter to a green energy leader.
Primarily a generator and retailer – or ‘gentailer’ for short – of electricity and gas, AGL was founded in 1837 as the Australian Gas Light Company and now serves nearly one-third of Australian households. With a generation capacity of more than 11,000MW – 20 per cent of the total capacity within Australia’s National Electricity Market – it operates the country’s largest electricity generation portfolio.