Australia’s energy transition is a significant economic opportunity for our industries, workers and regions.
The transition to net zero will drive economic growth and job creation as we invest in new technologies and industries to achieve our net zero goals.
Through this transition, it is important that the workers, communities and industries that have powered Australia for generations can seize the opportunities of Australia’s net zero economy.
The Net Zero Economy Agency is responsible for promoting orderly and positive net zero economic transformation. We are a precursor to the establishment of a legislated Net Zero Economy Authority, which the Government is targeting to stand up in 2024, subject to passage through parliament.
We are beginning the work of the Net Zero Economy Authority by:
- Catalysing investment in new industries and jobs, particularly in emissions-intensive regions.
- Supporting workers impacted by net zero transition, particularly workers in coal-fired power stations and dependent mines, transition to new opportunities.
- Helping coordinate policy and program design and delivery for an orderly and positive net zero economic transformation, through advice to government and by working on-the-ground in key regions.
- Building community understanding, confidence and engagement with net zero economic transformation
We are engaging with communities, regions, all levels of government, unions, industry and investors, education and training groups, First Nations groups and others to proactively manage and coordinate the shift to a net zero economy.
The support of workers in emissions-intensive industries to access new employment, skills and other opportunities is a core function of the Agency – and the future Authority.
This will involve supporting workers in emissions-intensive facilities, like coal-fired power stations, to access new employment, skills and opportunities. A particular focus will be workers displaced by facility closures.
To do this, we will:
- Work with other federal government agencies, employers, employee representatives and others to plan and mobilise support to transition workers from closing facilities into new opportunities.
- Mobilise new investment to generate job opportunities in regions. This will be led by our investment facilitation and coordination and policy advice functions.
A key part of our work, and the Authority’s future work, is supporting regions and communities to transform in an orderly and positive manner.
We will do this by:
- prioritising regions impacted by net zero emissions in delivering its other functions, like investment facilitation and worker transition support
- coordinating and delivering transformative regional supports and projects
- and supporting First Nations people to effectively engage in, and benefit from, the net zero economic transformation.
All regions are likely to undergo change as Australia’s energy system evolves, but we have had an early focus on the regions that are undergoing transformation now or imminently.
We have developed a framework, underpinned by literature and data, to deepen the Government’s understanding of regions at higher risk from net zero transition or with significant opportunity.
This analysis has identified industrial and power generation regions for early engagement by the Agency.
We have been tasked by Government to coordinate policy and program design and delivery around the objective of orderly and positive net zero economic transformation, working across all levels of government, with industries, workers and communities, and to provide advice to government.
We will also work with government and non-government stakeholders to build community understanding, confidence and engagement on the net zero transformation.
It is a complex but critical task to bring together the initiatives across the Commonwealth and all levels of government to deliver our commitment to a net zero economy by 2050.
We will help facilitate public and private investment in the net zero economic transformation where there is a clear role for government, and particularly in industrial regions impacted by the transformation.
State and territory governments, local governments and regional bodies, have already been thinking about and planning how they can shift to renewable energy. Many emissions-intensive industries are also considering how they can use renewable energy to power their industrial processes (for example, steelmaking), ensure they can offer low-emissions products in the future, and remain competitive.
What is needed is the coordination to facilitate the investment that will bring about transformational change and create new job opportunities.
We will work in regions and with local councils, state and territory governments, investors and business to identify and broker transformational projects. This includes identifying projects to enable decarbonisation of existing heavy industry and the creation of new low-emissions industries.