Labor win bodes well for Australia’s renewables sector

Government will remain under pressure on climate from growing electoral support for ‘teals’ and Greens

The Australian Labor party’s landslide win in the recent elections, where it secured 75 seats in parliament, has resulted in a positive outlook for the renewable energy industry in the country. For decades, Australia’s Liberal-National governments produced climate-change-sceptic policies, endorsing coal and natural gas. Even former prime minister Tony Abbott’s carbon certificate instrument, the Australian carbon credit unit, was designed to provide industry with inexpensive carbon offsets rather than to reduce CO₂ emissions. But continued exposure to record bushfires, floods and heatwaves have led Australian voters and industries to question the government’s climate change policies. Labor is