General News
14 August, 2024
Without information, 'a lot of angst' is brewing about renewable projects
Eight actions to ensure local communities benefit.
Regional communities are being left in the dark in the renewable energy transition, a new report has found.
Despite being the location of a predicted $122 billion investment boom, regional communities across Australia feel left behind and often no better off from the renewable energy transition already happening in their backyard.
The report, from the Regional Australia Institute, finds information on the transition is not being clearly communicated to regional communities, community benefits are piecemeal and these do not address the real needs of regional residents.
Chris Sounness has seen this first hand in the Wimmera.
The region already has a number of wind farms, and is in line for major transmission infrastructure and critical minerals mines.
The Wimmera Southern Mallee Development CEO is often the middle man between capital city politicians, renewable energy developers and the local community, and the tone of the conversation at the moment is not pretty.
"We've $20 billion worth of investment potentially outlined for the region, but at the moment, there's a lot of angst in the community."
Regional Australia Institute CEO Liz Ritchie said the renewable transition presented a once-in-a-generation opportunity, but had to be done right.
"We know that renewable energies are going to be and already are in regional communities, but this can't happen at any cost," Ms Ritchie said.
"We need to ensure we have appropriate liveability and amenity to meet that demand, to ensure that social licence translates to social legacy, and that regions are the beneficiary of this transition, not left worse off than they are today."
Institute researchers heard from regional communities that were already ground zero for the energy transition, with transmission lines crisscrossing farmland, mega solar farms across paddocks and wind turbines on ridgelines.
The report found that regional communities were generally supportive of the transition to net zero, however a lack of genuine collaboration with communities was generating opposition, with communities not seeing real benefits.
These tensions have flared up around the country, seeing farmers drive their tractors from regional Victoria into Melbourne, protests in the Illawarra and Port Stephens against offshore wind farms and tense community hall meetings at the site of major solar farms.
A recent survey of regional Australians by ACM, publisher of this masthead, found a lack of information on the transition to net zero and what it would mean in regional communities was a key concern for rural voters.
Four in five respondents said governments - local, state and federal - were giving communities barely any or not enough information about the renewable energy rollout.
This was allowing misinformation to flourish and suspicions to grow.
"Whenever change has been promised and promoted in rural communities that has tended to mean community have lost things, so they're wondering what they're going to lose this time," Mr Sounness said.
The Regional Australia Institute report recommends that governments require renewable energy project proponents to deliver a "social dividend" for regional communities. Donations to local sporting clubs would no longer cut it.
"It isn't about coming in and supporting sporting clubs anymore, we've moved well past that," Ms Ritchie said.
"Of course, that's always welcomed, however we need to set our sights much higher."
The authors also recommend local councils being given the power to increase rates on renewable energy projects, to ensure the funds are fed back into the community.
Mr Sounness said he would like to drive into one of the two dozen towns that are covered by his region and say the community is better off because of the renewable energy transition.
"At the moment, I can't say that, I can't say how community will be better off in the near term from these projects," he said.
"Not say it can be [better off] in 40 years."
In a telling irony, Mr Sourness is aware of one town whose supermarket has to turn off their air conditioning when the load on the network is too high during the hottest days, despite plans for major transmission lines and wind farms a stone's throw away.
Ms Ritchie said the need was similar across Australia, with housing, local jobs and social services such as schools and child care and that community benefit schemes needed to target this.
To empower regional communities, the report's key recommendations include:
Establish a "regional prosperity collective" to drive private investment to community needs.
Develop a "local legacy fund", creating real community benefits for regions.
Create a "national net zero framework" to measure transition success
Develop an "energy transition hub" to get facts instead of misinformation into the hands of residents.
Allow councils to charge renewable projects rates that support community initiatives.
Federal government to set an emissions trading scheme and put price on carbon.
Ms Ritchie said while there was "general goodwill" towards renewable energy projects in the regions "there is also frustration regarding current consultation".
"Regional stakeholders are also calling for practical and clear information," she said.
"Community acceptance and participation will also have a significant impact on the cost, timing and success of transition activities.
"Australia's transition to net zero can be the catalyst for enormous, beneficial change if governments, industry, regions work together.
"This transformation may be focused on energy, but it's also about empowering regions to thrive."