Closing Australia’s dirty power stations: That would be Direct Action

Closing Australia’s most polluting power stations would dramatically reduce emissions and accelerate the transition to a lower emissions intensive economy; Besides, the capacity is not even needed today. It is clear to us that global energy policy continues to shift towards supporting a lower emissions intensive economy. In the context of a rapidly depleting carbon budget, urgent action is needed today. So far there have been insufficient price signals to spur us into action. Perhaps the Australian government should adopt a 'closure' policy that targets the most polluting generating asset. Victoria's brown coal assets look like prime candidates for closure given that we estimate they produce approximately 12% of Australia total annual emissions. Also, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has indicated that the local market is so oversupplied that the rapid closure of capacity would not impact reliability. Targeting brown coal could radically slash our national emissions, rebalance the electricity market for the betterment of all participants, maintain high system reliability and Australia would end up with dramatically cleaner air. (VIEW LINK)