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Rose founded Coalition for Climate Change with Talacko, but the two parted ways. That group includes federal MP and shadow minister Paul Fletcher, Senator Maria Kovacic, NSW shadow ministers Matt Kean and Kellie Sloane, NSW upper house member Jacqui Munro, and Queensland shadow ministers Sam O’Connor and Steve Minnikin.
Kean, the former NSW energy minister known for aggressive action on climate change, attended O’Brien’s presentation.
“I was thrilled to see Ted O’Brien acknowledge the need to get to net-zero before 2050, and that is his motivation for the address,” Kean said.
However, he said it would not be possible to deploy nuclear power in Australia in time to replace ageing coal power plants.
Also observing the session was clean energy investor and convenor of the Climate 200 group, which backs teal independent candidates, Simon Holmes a Court.
Holmes a Court said while he backed the global pledge, he does not believe nuclear has a role in Australia’s transition because it is so expensive and takes so long to deploy.
“It is a pretty easy pledge to sign because three times zero is zero,” he said, referring to the current state of Australia’s nuclear energy sector.
“As Ted O’Brien said in his presentation today, 80 per cent of Australian coal [power] will be out of the grid by 2035.
“There is no conceivable world in which Australia has any nuclear operating by 2040, which means it won’t be playing a role in the decarbonisation of the grid.
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“It might play a role in the decarbonisation in other parts of the economy after 2040, but it will be competing against other technologies.”
Holmes a Court also dismissed the suggestion that small modular reactors might fill a gap in Australia’s near term energy needs.
“If we wanted to, we could throw a trillion dollars at SMRs today, and they still would not be operational by 2040,” he said.
Speaking a day earlier in Dubai, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen dismissed the opposition’s nuclear advocacy as a distraction.
“Nuclear energy is not involved in any multilateral conversations [here],” Bowen said.
“It’s a pipe dream wrapped in a fantasy accompanied by an illusion.”
Nick O’Malley’s travel was supported by Climate Action Network Australia.
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