Electricity production is Australia’s largest carbon dioxide emitting sector, and offers great potential for emissions reductions both in the short and long term, all the way to decarbonisation of the power supply. The existing policy framework however is not geared to support a comprehensive low-carbon transition. Government has foreshadowed a 2017 climate policy review, while the Labor party has said that it would implement new policies if in power.

At this symposium, researchers from several organisations present latest research and perspectives on economic, policy and some technical issues.

Speakers:

• Tony Wood, Grattan Institute Energy Program director, will discuss power sector policy in the context of overall choices for climate policy in Australia.
• Olivia Kember, policy and research manager at The Climate Institute, will discuss TCI analysis on second-best policy options for a two-degree outcome.
• Steve Hatfield-Dodds, Chief Research Leader, Integration Science And Public Policy at CSIRO and Adjunct Professor at Crawford School, will present insights from the Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap project.
• Tim Nelson, Head of Economics, Policy and Sustainability at AGL Energy, will provide the perspective of a large power asset owning company and present research on the need to facilitate transition for coal-fired generators (Read papers here and here).
• Frank Jotzo of Crawford School and Salim Mazouz of The Centre for International Economics will present a proposed market mechanism for exit of brown-coal fired power stations, in the absence of carbon pricing (Read paper here ).
• Kathryn Smith, Review Director at the Climate Change Authority, will outline the policy options the Authority is considering in its current Special Review of Australia’s climate action, and how it is evaluating those options.

This symposium is presented by the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy, at Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.