Penny Wong: Australia Will Be A Renewable Energy Superpower

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, made her first major speech during the general debate of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on 24 September 2022.

 

Penny Wong’s speech

Senator Wong remarked that her nation is home to individuals with more than 300 different ancestries and the longest continuously existing civilisation on the planet. She serves a diverse Parliament whose leadership is committed to moving the nation’s healing along with Indigenous Australians, the continent’s First Peoples.

Source: https://gadebate.un.org/en/77/australia

She referenced Senator Patrick Dodson, a Yawuru man from the remote north-west known as the “Father of Reconciliation,” who was tasked with responding to a plea from First Nations people for a voice in the Australian Parliament that was guaranteed by the constitution as well as treaty and truth-telling. Further, he referred to Dr Herbert Evatt, an Australian who served as former foreign minister and the third President of the General Assembly and agreed to support the UN Charter. Dr Evatt opposed the major nations’ desire for a powerful Security Council with authority over the Assembly during the 1945 San Francisco Conference. Although he could not override the veto of the great powers in the Council, he successfully ensured that the Assembly could choose its course. He did this because he recognised that small and medium-sized nations must be able to uphold their sovereign choices while protected by a stable set of rules.

Wong expressed alarm that nearly half a billion women and girls now live in extreme poverty and that, for the first time, the UN Human Development Index has decreased for two years in a row, in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, 50 million people in 45 nations are on the edge of starvation, 345 million people experience acute food insecurity, and over 800 million people go to bed hungry every night, posing a severe danger to global stability. Australia will thereby contribute more than $1 billion to development assistance.

She also emphasised the climate change alarm is getting louder, even in her own country, ”Drought and potential famine in the Horn of Africa. Major floods in Pakistan, record-breaking heatwaves in Europe and Asia. The alarm bells of climate change are growing louder, including in my own country.”

The Foreign Minister forecasts that 83 per cent of Australia’s energy supply will be renewable within this decade, will help in the global energy transition, and “Australia will be a renewable energy superpower,” she said. Australia is increasing its official development assistance (ODA) by over $500 million to the Pacific and an additional $470 million to the Indo-Pacific. Parliament just passed legislation establishing such targets as law, and one of the first acts of the new Australian government has been to submit our ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, according to the Senator.

wind-energy-australia

She also mentioned that the Australian government is working in their region to support Pacific countries, which stand to lose the most from the changing climate while doing their share to cut the emissions. “The Australian people want to be better, more involved, and more helpful members of the Pacific family”, Senator Wong also said.

About Foreign Minister, Penny Wong

Sabah, a state in Malaysia, is the place of Penny Wong’s birthplace. When she was eight years old, her family moved to Adelaide in Australia. She attended the University of Adelaide to study law and the arts. After graduating from university, she worked for a trade union representing those employed in the furniture sector. She participated in campaigns to raise the wages and working conditions of the union’s members, especially low-wage female migrants used in upholstery shops.

As the first woman to occupy either of these positions, Senator Wong was elected Leader of the Government in the Senate in 2013 and, following the change of government that year, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Before the election of the Albanese Government in 2022, she held the position of Shadow Foreign Minister for six years before being appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs. She has worked for South Australia’s interests as a devoted representative in the federal Parliament, including preserving the Murray River’s long-term viability and improving the State’s economy.

Concerning renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from natural sources that replenish themselves more rapidly than consumed. Examples of such continuously filled sources are the sun, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy significantly lessens environmental effects and reduces carbon emissions.

Australia’s 2022’s renewable power percentage (RPP) is 18.64% for renewable energy sources, according to Clean Energy Regulator. As a result, to fulfil their Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) commitments for 2022, liable organisations (often energy retailers) must surrender over 32.6 million large-scale generation certificates (LGCs). Visit our page to learn more about Australia’s Renewable Energy Sector.

In terms of production statistics, China is already in the lead. The most significant domestic and international investors in renewable energy, as well as the largest generator of wind and solar energy in the world, are Chinese businesses. In 2016, they closed four of the world’s top five renewable energy agreements.
Morocco is already a global leader in solar energy thanks to the strength of its abundant sunshine. The Noor-Ouarzazate complex in the Sahara Desert is currently home to the largest concentrated solar farm in the world. A city twice the size of Marrakech could be powered by the farm, which is the size of 3,500 football fields.

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