This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A key environment group is urging the Labor states not to rubber stamp the Turnbull government’s national energy guarantee at Friday’s meeting of energy ministers.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has warned that a low emissions reduction target for electricity would put at risk the states’ own energy plans and any chance of effective climate change action.

It says the the national emissions reduction target, confirmed in a new commonwealth paper, of a 26% cut on 2005 levels by 2030 is “woefully inadequate”.

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“Many state governments have made strong commitments to make deeper pollution cuts and embrace clean energy,” said Suzanne Harter, from the ACF’s climate change and clean energy campaign. “They should not wave through a Neg that jeopardises fulfilling these commitments to the communities they represent.

“At Friday’s meeting state governments must insist on a national climate change plan for electricity that, unlike the Neg, will facilitate a rapid rollout of clean energy that makes deep cuts to planet warming pollution.”

Key stakeholders, including state and territory governments, are absorbing new technical details circulated by the Energy Security Board and the Turnbull government before Friday’s meeting of energy ministers.

Behind the scenes, a group of business and energy market stakeholders eager to settle Australia’s decade-long climate wars is trying to draft a joint statement in support of the policy. They hope to persuade the states and territories to agree to keep the proposal moving through the Coag energy council.

The Energy Security Board has provided all jurisdictions with a 54-page document outlining the technical design of the new scheme and the mechanisms that will be deployed under the Neg – a policy that would impose a reliability obligation and an emissions reduction requirement on energy retailers and a small number of large electricity users from 2020.

The Energy Security Board paper addresses a range of concerns expressed to it about the potential for the Neg to increase market concentration in the electricity sector.

The commonwealth has also circulated a second 11-page paper dealing with the emissions reduction framework, the treatment of emissions intensive trade exposed activities and the potential use of offsets.

The second paper proposes the emissions reduction target for electricity be set for 10 years, then updated with five years’ notice to create policy certainty for investors.

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It also makes it clear that more ambitious emissions reduction activities undertaken by state and territory governments through their renewable energy schemes will not ultimately boost the federal target – a development which could put several jurisdictions offside.

The coming week is critical for the fate of the policy because any single jurisdiction has the power to break the concept. Changes to the national electricity market rules require consensus between the commonwealth and the states.

While the federal energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, is confident he can get his colleagues over the line, some Labor state and territory governments are yet to signal public support.

Victoria’s energy, environment and climate change minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said in a statement to Guardian Australia the energy ministers can only make the Neg work “if we are presented with a sound policy proposal backed by evidence and consultation”.

“We want a genuine commitment from the Turnbull government for bipartisanship in lowering emissions, growing renewables and market reform,” she said. “There are thousands of Victorians jobs and billions of dollars of investment riding on this – and we will not compromise on that”.