IEYay or IENay? Australia’s energy policy report card

Let Me Sum Up

Hands up who wants Tennant to complete his rewording of ‘We didn’t start the fire’ for the pod?!

Now that you’ve had the taste of Billy Joel-goes LMSU you didn’t know you needed in your lives, your intrepid hosts weigh into the week’s developments by zeroing in on the government’s release of their electric vehicle strategy. Overhyped? Perhaps, but while there are a lot of familiar things on the menu, there’s a new CAFE in town and we don’t mean the hipster coffee variety either! That’s right, we’re looking at the introduction of the first fuel efficiency standards in Australia, with a consultation running until the end of May on the design.

This week we dive into the Energy System Transformation section of the just-released IEA country assessment, ‘Australia 2023: Energy Policy Review’. With lots to say about the energy sector’s response to climate change, progress on energy efficiency, renewable energy and R&D, this report packs a lot of punch and your intrepid hosts have more than a few hot takes of our own!

But wait, there's more: it’s a shameless week of self-dealing when it comes to One More Things!

Frankie’s One More Thing is the launch of Every Building Counts, the Property Council and Green Building Council’s joint policy platform for a zero-carbon-ready and resilient built environment. Frankie is a bit chuffed to be launching this report, which also comes hot on the heels of Jim Chalmers’ investor roundtable on energy with some significant commitments to energy efficiency ratings for homes. Huzzah!

Luke’s One More Thing is a new report from the EEC’s resident efficiency guru, Rob Murray-Leach, Clean Energy, Clean Demand. A cracking read and roadmap for optimising the role of demand management as the grid gets greener. And because he’s a cheeky bugger with a sneaky twofer, he’s dared to plug his *gasp* other podcast here! Tragics that we are, we still can’t resist a plug for A Very ETI Episode of First Fuel, unpacking the excellent report from Climateworks Centre and Climate KIC just released on pathways to industrial decarbonisation.

Tennant’s One More Thing is a bastion of integrity with no self-interest in sight. He’s flagging a flurry of activity in the US on a series of regulatory ‘sticks’ in the form of regulations from the EPA, addressing tightening of vehicle fuel efficiency standards, emissions of power plants and emissions from the gas sector. Quite the contrast from the hurricane of carrots that is the Inflation Reduction Act!

And that’s all from us this week Summerupperers! We shall see you next time and until then, please keep tweeting your thoughts to us at @LukeMenzel, @TennantReed and @FrankieMuskovic and if you would like to weave some golden threads through our back catalogue, give us your feelpinions or suggest papers to read we are always here for that - hit us up at [e-mail].