The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has released a scorecard for Australia’s states and territories, ranking them on how they’re going in the renewables race. NSW is at the top of the WWF renewables list for the first time.
Australia has always been ahead of the rest of the world on the uptake of rooftop solar, and the country has a massive amount of renewable resources (in particular, lithium and cobalt). Putting these together, and Australia should be ahead of the curve on the uptake of renewable energy.
So, to keep an eye on Australia’s performance, the WWF puts together a report every year to track the uptake of renewables in each state.
This is the third year of the report, and this time around, the WWF has identified NSW as the leader in the renewables race.
Scoring a total of 77 points, NSW has jumped ahead of Tasmania, sitting at 69 points. South Australia and Queensland sit in equal third place, each at 64 points.
The Australian government sits in equal fourth place with Victoria, at 59 points.
“As the latest Renewables Superpower Scorecard shows, more and more governments are stepping up in what is now a global race to decarbonise economies and capture the renewable energy opportunity,” WWF Australia’s CEO Dermot O’Gorman said.
“Almost daily we are seeing new records for renewable power generation across the nation and increasing investments in renewable energy generation and infrastructure as Australia and the world transition to renewables as the lowest cost energy for the future.”
Western Australia sits in fifth at 54 points, and the Northern Territory is in last place, at just 39 points. The WWF thinks that the territory “must shine brighter”.
Additionally, the WWF says that although Australia is well on its way to becoming 100 per cent renewable, more must be done if Australia is going to meet exponential renewable targets by 2040.
“Investor confidence in Australia’s clean energy transition is improving but strong policy vision and stability is critical to creating more investable markets. Strong Policy frameworks can make or break investment decisions, it is critical governments focus on increasing the level of committed clean energy projects in Australia,” the CEO of the Clean Energy Investor Group Simon Corbell said.
It’s great to see the uptake of renewables explode over the past year, but we’ll need to keep the momentum up to fully support the grid.
“We need to transform our economy from a linear industrial machine to one that is circular, regenerative and purpose-driven, working across supply chains and with our people to find opportunities to truly regenerate nature and our communities,” O’Gorman added.
If you’ve been thinking about installing rooftop solar, now’s as good a time as ever.
You can read the report online.