Guaranteeing What, Exactly?

By Tim Hollo October 17, 2017

National Energy Guarantee

Today, Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg announced another iteration in the climate policy fiasco – a National Energy Guarantee, scrapping support for renewable energy. It is a policy specifically designed to extend the life of coal fired power stations and slow the growth of renewable energy.

Can we talk about what this National Energy Guarantee actually guarantees?

  • This guarantees that many more people will die (as I recently argued at The Guardian), lose their homes and their livelihoods thanks to worse climate disruption.
  • This guarantees that whole island nations will sink beneath the waves.
  • This guarantees that more people will live in energy poverty as it locks in old, expensive power.
  • This guarantees that workers in coal fired power stations and coal mines get a false sense of security and absolutely no plan to support them when the end comes, as it will.
  • This guarantees that the ugly climate politics will continue, as they must until we have something that works.

What else does it guarantee? Certainly not a stable energy network, low prices or a safe climate…

What do you think? Love your ideas.

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