Frank Calabria, the boss of energy giant Origin, says Australia needs to get on with an orderly transition from coal power to renewable energy and give investors certainty as Australia’s heated climate wars flare up ahead of the next federal election due by May next year.he would scrap Australia’s legally binding 2030 climate target at the risk of undermining the Paris Agreement on climate change.
“The transition is obviously a significant undertaking. Clearly we are having to invest if we’re to achieve our goals for the climate over time. We will need to retire coal plants and introduce renewable energy,” Calabria said. “There’s a lot of merit in getting on with it.”“The key thing is that it is done in a way that’s orderly. Doing it an orderly way needs to include doing it in the most cost-efficient way for customers, both homes and businesses,” he said.
Another competitive advantage is Origin’s gas fired generation fleet which is “very difficult and costly to replicate,” Calabria said. Gas plants will be critical to smoothing energy supply when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, the company maintains.