ARENA: New laws to tackle climate change take effect

Two pieces of legislation governing Australia’s approach to action on climate change, the Climate Change Act 2022 and the Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Act 2022, took effect today after receiving Royal Assent on Tuesday 13 September 2022. These Acts legislate Australia’s emissions reduction targets, including a 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

Under the Climate Change (Consequential Amendments) Act 2022, the main object of the ARENA Act has been expanded to include an additional object – ‘to ‘facilitate the achievement of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.’

These Acts now form part of ARENA’s governing legislation, along with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act 2011, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Regulation 2016 which incorporates amendments made by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Amendment (Powering Australia) Regulations 2022.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller welcomed the new legislation and committed ARENA to delivering on these new objectives.

“Australia’s climate targets have now been written into law and achieving them will require close collaboration between Government, industry and consumers.” Mr Miller said.

“ARENA is ready to deliver on these goals, building on our ten years’ experience in improving the competitiveness and supply of renewable energy technologies in Australia.

We’re excited by the challenge and the opportunity that these targets present and we look forward to playing an important role in helping Australia to achieve our medium and long term emissions reduction goals,” he said.

Since 2012, ARENA has supported 628 projects with $1.86 billion in grant funding, unlocking $8.05 billion of total investment in renewable energy.