Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been a lot of talk over recent years about Australia's unique opportunity to become a renewable energy superpower, but the reality is Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world when it comes to grasping this once-off opportunity, this transitional moment in history.

The United States passed its Inflation Reduction Act last year. It is the largest piece of federal legislation to ever address climate change, and already it is changing the world—changing it in a positive way and at pace. The Inflation Reduction Act is, among other things, an investment by the US government in domestic clean energy production and use. It is their plan to guarantee their nation's energy security into the future and to remain the world's largest and most prosperous economy. It is all carrot and no stick. In other words, it provides tax credits and incentives for things like electric vehicles, the electrification of homes, energy efficiency upgrades and advanced manufacturing in clean energy technology.

Within less than a year of its operation, the success of the act is clear. Government rebates and production linked incentives worth US$370 billion have already mobilised an estimated US$1.2 trillion in additional private sector capital. This is a mammoth investment in new technologies that will transform energy systems and decarbonise our future. But it also means that startups from all around the world are being lured to the US, where they will be supported financially to commercialise and to grow at scale. As Britain's finance minister, Jeremy Hunt, said earlier this year, the act represents a 'very real competitive threat'.

The risk is so great that many of our major trading partners have already responded with their own investment plans. The EU's green deal represents an investment of over US$1 trillion in public and private funds. Canada, the UK, Japan and South Korea have already responded. Australia is yet to respond.

If Australia does not act urgently with our own investment plan we will lose workers, ideas, companies and investment capital overseas. Every week that passes in this country without a comprehensive plan for the whole-of-economy transformation that needs to take place is not only catastrophic for the climate but is throwing away the unrivalled economic opportunities that we have on our doorstep. Climate and energy finance expert Tim Buckley quite rightly says that Australia's response to the US act should be commensurate to our opportunities, that with our natural advantages our opportunities are limitless and that we have the opportunity to change the world. I urge the Albanese government to not waste it.