Conclusions

This paper has assessed the policy, regulatory and institutional settings for renewable energy in Australia. The assessment suggests that the existing policy, regulatory and institutional settings are characterised by a general lack of political constituency for redressing climate change challenge, thereby piecemeal policy efforts for promoting renewable generation, significant regulatory uncertainty, and limited institutional capacity.
The assessment also suggests that this lack of political constituency is essentially a reflection of the broader electricity and socio-economic policy settings, which have historically favored cheap and abundant indigenous coal for power generation, to serve wider socio-economic priorities and agendas. In such environments, issues of climate change have become subservient to wider socio-economic priorities. The inefficacious renewable energy policy, regulations and institutions are therefore ‘natural’ outcomes.
It is therefore reasonable to argue that effort to defossilise electricity generation through, for example, promoting renewable generation is more likely to bear fruit, if there is a national consensus to develop a low-carbon economy. The formation of this consensus will clearly require a considered accommodation of various affected interests through political bargaining processes.