Coalition MPs weighing up whether to abandon net zero have been briefed on research that argued \u201cheat deaths aren\u2019t a thing\u201d, played down the prospect of substantial sea level rises and claimed \u201cno one has ever made low-cost energy\u201d from wind and solar.<\/p>\n
Guardian Australia has viewed slides from a presentation the conservative thinktank Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) gave to MPs in Canberra this week, along with the findings of private polling on net zero.<\/p>\n
The briefing was arranged by a Coalition backbench committee and aimed to inform internal debate on policies, including the contentious climate target.<\/p>\n
The \u201cnet zero voter research\u201d presented to MPs found 32% of 1,010 respondents wanted the target to remain, while 16% wanted it \u201cscrapped entirely\u201d.<\/p>\n
The remaining 52% wanted the target \u201cchanged to more flexible, realistic, and achievable goals\u201d, according to polling from Insights Portal viewed by Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n
That third option has emerged as the most likely landing spot for the Coalition under a compromise designed to win the broadest support in a party room that is deeply divided on climate policy.<\/p>\n
A slide from the presentation, which draws graphs from the climate risk assessment. Photograph: The Centre for Independent Studies<\/p>\n
Among the options discussed internally, all of which would represent a watering-down of the Peter Dutton-era policy, were committing to repeal Labor\u2019s legislated climate targets, delaying the net zero deadline, and carving out certain industries, including agriculture.<\/p>\n
Just 9% of respondents to the poll supported extending the net-zero deadline when presented with various options to change the target.<\/p>\n
Guardian Australia was unable to independently verify who commissioned the poll.<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n But Coalition sources familiar with the briefing said MPs were told it was funded by an anonymous \u201chigh net-worth individual\u201d \u2013 not the party.<\/p>\n Ahead of a scheduled meeting to debate net zero on Friday<\/a>, about 20 MPs Coalition attended Monday\u2019s briefing to learn about the polling, as well as research from the CIS.<\/p>\n The backbench committee \u2013 run by Jane Hume and Simon Kennedy \u2013 has invited various groups, including the Blueprint Institute, McKinsey and Broken Bay Associates, to brief MPs with different perspectives about the energy debate.<\/p>\n The CIS\u2019 60-slide presentation on Monday \u2013 titled \u201cWhat matters in the energy debate\u201d \u2013 included anti-net zero cartoons and graphs questioning the impacts of climate change, the cost of renewables and the work of government agencies including the Australian Energy<\/a> Market Operator (Aemo) and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CISRO)<\/p>\n One slide was titled \u201cheat deaths aren\u2019t a thing\u201d, citing graphs included in September\u2019s climate risk assessment<\/a> as supposed evidence.<\/p>\n The slide did not mention the same report found that heat-related deaths could increase by 444% in Sydney if global heating surpassed 3C.<\/p>\n Another slide was headed \u201csmall sea-level rises are certain. Large ones aren\u2019t\u201d, while another was titled \u201cno one has ever made low-cost energy from wind and solar\u201d.<\/p>\n A Coalition source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, was alarmed at the briefing.<\/p>\n \u201cTo hear from them (CIS) was an important part of the policy review process,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n \u201c(But) you could not help but to think that we heard from a thinktank with a special affection for coal. Disappointingly there was little to no consideration of environmental impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n In a statement to Guardian Australia, the CIS executive director, Michael Stutchburydefended the thinktank\u2019s research.<\/p>\n \u201cCIS research is providing the best explanation for why the rapid injection of intermittent solar and wind generation into the electricity grid has been accompanied by the loss of Australia\u2019s traditional cheap energy advantage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In response to suggestions the CIS was too pro-coal, Stutchbury said the thinktank had a technology agonistic approach to the energy transition.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we also insist they must be cost-effective and not contribute to raising prices for Australian households,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The private polling presented to MPs covered several other questions about net zero and energy prices, including ones that canvassed delaying the transition and increasing the use of coal and gas.<\/p>\n For example, respondents were asked if they would support delaying the net zero target if it meant \u201clower prices and more reliable energy\u201d. About 63% said they would support that option, 19% were unsure and 18% said no.<\/p>\n Dr Dorian von Freyhold from Insights Portal, who prepared the polling, declined to comment when contacted by Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hume on Tuesday announced she would introduce a private member\u2019s bill to lift the nuclear energy ban, renewing her party\u2019s pursuit of the energy source just months after it was rejected at the federal election.<\/p>\n Hume\u2019s bill would repeal the John Howard-era nuclear moratorium and allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australian Renewable Energy Agency to invest in the technology.<\/p>\n The senator\u2019s proposal is a substantially watered-down version of the policy the Coalition took to the May election, which involved replacing retired coal-fired power stations with taxpayer-funded nuclear reactors at seven sites nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re serious about getting emissions down, you\u2019ve got to have all options on the table,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re not technology agnostic, well then your real objective is about blanketing the country in renewable energy projects, rather than genuinely lowering emissions and energy prices. The only way to be technology agnostic is to remove the moratorium on nuclear energy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coalition MPs weighing up whether to abandon net zero have been briefed on research that argued \u201cheat deaths…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-230338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}