As one of the worlds’ most urbanised nations, Australia’s capital cities will be instrumental to the implementation of climate and energy reform.
Cities will be the site of many of the dramatic changes in consumer behaviour and technological change highlighted in the Finkel Review. The CSIRO estimates that as much as 50 per cent of energy consumption by 2050 will occur through decentralised energy technologies, which will be primarily rolled-out in the capital cities. As Australia’s energy market rules were constructed in an era of centralised generation, there are a series of regulatory barriers for decentralised energy which act as anti-competitive barriers to entry or distort competition. In the aftermath of the South Australian black-out, the focus of many parties is large-scale energy, networks and market operations to improve energy security – but it is equally important that energy market rules are modernised for the efficient roll-out of decentralised energy technologies
Internationally, cities and regions were included in the Paris summit for the first term at a Conference of the Parties. The C40 cities network has recently estimated cities can directly or indirectly implement 40 per cent of the Paris agreement.
CCCLM Finkel Review Submission – Web version 70317