AGL to phase out coal, use carbon price in investment decisions

Published 08:31 on April 17, 2015  /  Last updated at 08:31 on April 17, 2015  / Stian Reklev /  Asia Pacific, Australia

Australia’s biggest carbon emitter AGL will shut down all its coal plants by 2050, stop all investments in new coal projects and integrate a carbon price in future investment decisions, the company said Friday.

Australia’s biggest carbon emitter AGL will shut down all its coal plants by 2050, stop all investments in new coal projects and integrate a carbon price in future investment decisions, the company said Friday.

AGL, the country’s biggest power retailer, launched a new climate change policy which it said aimed to support the government’s target of limiting global temperature rise to 2C by mid-century.

“It is important that government policy incentivise investment in lower-emitting technology while at the same time ensuring that older, less efficient and reliable power stations are removed from Australia’s energy mix,” CEO Andy Vesey said.

The company will close down all its coal plants by 2050, it said, and promised not to prolong the lifetime of any of them.

It also pledged to not build, finance or acquire new conventional coal-fired power stations in Australia unless they were fitted with CCS.

AGL also said it would “incorporate a forecast of future carbon pricing in to all generation capital expenditure decisions” but did not provide details on how it will calculate the carbon price.

The current government is strongly opposed to pricing carbon emissions, and last year repealed Australia’s CO2 price.

AGL emitted 19.6 million tonnes of CO2 in 2013-14, but last year acquired Macquarie Generation, which emits over 20 million tonnes annually, making the company Australia’s biggest GHG emitter as well as the biggest renewable energy provider.

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