Coal and gas earnings must be harnessed to fund the energy revolution, the Grattan Institute says, warning the social fabric could tear if regional economies were not considered in the transition.
The costs of phasing out coal and gas are so high that governments must redirect coal royalties and create a sovereign wealth fund from the critical minerals boom to pay for it, a leading centrist think tank says, equating the shift away from a fossil fuel-dominated economy to a second industrial revolution for Australia.
The price tag for transforming the electricity grid alone will be astronomical.
Amanda Cahill, chief executive of the not-for-profit regional economic development agency Next Economy, said a decade of inaction on the economic transition meant there is pressure on state and federal governments to now “move quickly”.
Grattan’s report said “if managed poorly [the energy transition] will generate social opposition and political friction... Delaying decarbonisation out of fear that it will be messy and difficult is fundamentally unjust to the people who will be most affected”.
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