The plan to transition Australia away from fossil fuels

Guy Lane is writing a plan to decarbonise the Australian economy by nationalizing and euthanizing the Australian fossil fuel industry.

THE 2019 REPORT, co-authored by the late Professor Will Steffen, stated that human civilization had entered a new era. Planetary Emergency State Because both the risk and urgency of climate change have become acute.

Around this time, the Great Barrier Reef, the jewel in Australia’s biodiversity crown, began to bleach repeatedly. events.

Highlighting the events that took place on the reef last year Global Tipping Points report He claimed that coral reefs were in terminal decline due to rising sea temperatures due to climate change.

Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Center for Climate Impact Research in Davos this year. transition and a complete phase-out of the fossil fuel industry.

Australia is home to a large fossil fuel industry consisting of two important parts:

Domestic: ASX-listed Australian firms that produce or import fossil fuels
International: Australian subsidiaries of foreign companies, wholly internationally owned companies and joint ventures between Australian and international firms.

Domestic companies include: forest side, Santos, Beach Energy, Karoon Energy, Long live Energy, Whitehaven CoalAnd Stanmore Resources. Köken Energy It is also included due to its partial ownership of a production asset.

The value of these eight domestic companies on paper is approximately 100 billion dollars and they make an annual profit of around 10 billion dollars.

RITA – Rapid Industrial Transition Australia – is a plan to transition Australia away from fossil fuels in three phases.

Stage 1: Legislation and finance

Parliament declared a National Security Emergency due to the current and projected impacts of climate change.

Parliament passed the RITA Act. Section 51(vi) Constitutional defense powers, used during both World Wars, were used to maintain control over industry.

The RITA Act mandates the phasing out of fossil fuel production, domestic consumption and exports, and the country becoming fossil fuel-free in 15 years or less.

The Commonwealth is preparing approximately AU$100 billion in funding to implement the Act.

Stage 2: Nationalize and negotiate

The Commonwealth is proposing to acquire ASX-listed Australian companies involved in the extraction and import of fossil fuels at 100% of their pre-RITA Act market value.

This offer is strategically generous in that shareholders receive compensation for fossil fuel reserves that have become legally unminable, as the share prices of these companies will likely fall by 60% or more following the passage of the RITA Act.

Companies that reject this offer will face a mandatory buyout at post-RITA Act value. p51(xxxi) “conditions only” requirements.

Nationalization of the Australian fossil fuel industry is necessary for three critical reasons:

making a profit for the public good
ensuring compliance by eliminating interference in lobbying activities; And
Crisis resilience and energy security

International operations cannot be nationalized directly, but the Commonwealth can require export licenses, environmental approvals, etc. controls and can negotiate phase-out agreements backed by diplomacy and regulatory pressure.

Stage 3: Energy transition

The nationalized companies will be merged into a Commonwealth-controlled entity that will be managed by the Fossil Fuel Commissioner (FFC).

Current boards and senior leadership will be replaced with Commonwealth officials.

In parallel with the phase-out, the Commonwealth will shut down some assets and resume normal operations for others to maintain energy supplies, jobs and profits throughout the transition.

Profits from operating assets will decline in line with the phase-out provisions, with a potential return of AU$80 billion over the 15-year transition.

This money will be used for the following purposes:

transition from fossil fuels to clean energy;
repayment of any debt incurred for the acquisition of assets;
a national PR campaign;
supporting the CO2 reduction industry focused on soil, forest and ocean carbon;
international support to encourage other nations to follow suit; And
social transition of affected communities.

RITA may not be able to prevent the heat death of the Great Barrier Reef, but it offers a turning point for Australia to transition from a net source of carbon emissions to a continent-wide carbon sink, to stop making things worse and start making things better for our climate and the future of life on Earth.

Guy Lane is an environmental scientist, author and entrepreneur. He is a commentator is a writer of fiction on ecological sustainability and geopolitics, and a fiction writer with a dozen fiction novels and novellas on sustainability themes.