What can Australia learn from California's climate change response?
For the latest flood and weather warnings, search on ABC Emergency
Australia and California have much in common – sun, surf and an over-representation of screen talent.
With a population of 40 million people, the US state is bigger than our 26 million, but that's not wildly different when comparing jurisdictions.
Both face similar vulnerabilities from climate change, like bushfires (or wildfires over there), droughts and floods, along with market volatility affecting household energy supply.
All in all, the two jurisdictions make for a good comparison in the fight against climate change.
So, what can Australia learn from the Golden State?
California is not only beating many other US states when it comes to a climate change response, but many other countries.
"Carbon-free energy is now the majority of our energy supply, we're in the 60 to 63 per cent range overall, on an annual basis," California Energy Commissioner Dr Andrew McAllister told ABC RN's Drive on a recent visit to Australia.
Dr McAllister is part of the leadership team at the California Energy Commission, a state government agency responsible for energy policy and planning.
"We're doing everything we can on the 'supply side' to accelerate installation of renewable generation … large solar, large wind, geothermal, lots of different resources that are carbon free," Dr McAllister said.
He said there's even been "a few hours here and there where we've been 100 per cent renewable – so it is possible to run the grid on 100 per cent renewable energy".
Australia is moving in a similar direction, but it has some way to go.
According to the Australian government: "Over the last decade, the share of electricity generated by renewable energy in Australia has increased significantly, rising from around 10.5 per cent in 2010 to 29 per cent in 2021."
And looking ahead, California's net zero target is more ambitious than ours.
The state has passed legislation pledging net zero emissions by 2045, while Australia recently legislated to be net zero by 2050.
Dr McAllister said his state wants to use more renewables as soon as possible but, like many other jurisdictions, it's facing a challenging transition.
All the while, he's very conscious of "maintaining reliability and making sure that the system works for all Californians and is relatively affordable".
"So the infrastructure that we need … is certainly on the supply side – more solar, more wind [and] lots of different kinds of energy storage, including batteries at all scales," he said.
"But it's also demand-side resources. So the way we consume energy, when we consume it and, to some extent, where on the grid we consume it. All of those factors come into play."
So, what has California done differently to Australia in furthering its goal of net zero, while trying to maintain stable and affordable energy?
Dr McAllister pointed to energy efficiency standards – something his state has been implementing since the 1970s, when they started with refrigerators.
"I'd say where California has been operating for many decades — and that Australia could really, I think, take advantage of that experience — is investing in energy efficiency," he said.
"Our building standards are very aggressive, our appliance efficiency standards are aggressive. And so we've got a very efficient economy in terms of the amount of energy that's used per unit of GDP."
RN Drive brings you a fresh perspective on the day's top national and international stories.
"Managing energy usage and lowering it with investments in energy efficiency make all of our other challenges smaller," he said.
According to the California Energy Commission: "By implementing cost-effective appliance and building energy efficiency standards, the Energy Commission has saved consumers more than US$100 billion [$145 billion] in utility bills" over 40 years.
And it's not all talk. California recently topped the 2022 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard – a ranking of US states by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Dr McAllister pointed out one key difference between the two jurisdictions: Electric vehicles.
"With electric vehicles, we will not have internal combustion vehicles being sold – passenger vehicles being sold – in 2035 and beyond," he said.
In 2020, California governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero emission by 2035.
In Australia, the previous Coalition government had a decidedly mixed approach to EVs, while Labor recently announced the country's first National Electric Vehicle Strategy.
The numbers show what happens when politicians take action in this area: In California, nearly 18 per cent of all new cars sold were EVs, while in Australia, that number is around 4 per cent.
Dr McAllister also pointed to California's energy efficiency standards for buildings.
"[For] building electrification [for example], we're using lots of heat pumps instead of combustion heating devices," which are much more energy efficient, he said.
It's not all rosy in California.
The state recently decided to postpone the closure of its last nuclear power plant and to extend the life of some natural gas-fired facilities, for additional sources of power.
But Dr McAllister pointed to California's last summer, where there were "unprecedented heat waves" which drove up energy demand.
"We've had these heat waves that weren't this close in the planning horizon … It's just the fact that climate change is coming at us faster than the models predicted."
He said California is now in the middle of "a very key transition period".
"We have these next five years which are very critical to accelerate the transition and really get the renewables at the scale we need … [along with] the storage and all the energy management that comes along with that."
Get more stories that go beyond the news cycle with our weekly newsletter.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)
