Can Labor defy the fossil fuel lobby?

May 7, 2025

Yes, “ What an opportunity Australia has before it”. But many hearts and minds are yet to be won in an environment where cost of living and our energy transformation (as Jim Chalmers describes it) are disconnected.

Labor must convince many Australians that our smallish contribution to global CO2 emissions is worth the effort. They must communicate the advantages to national security, productivity and the forward-looking idea of a renewables superpower.

Deep-pocketed forces are ranged against our transformation. International climate change-denying groups like the Atlas Network, and its offshoot Advance, will, no doubt, double down on lobbying for fossil fuels and undermining our energy transformation.

Renew Economy reports, “Atlas includes high-profile propagators of climate denial and pro-fossil fuel propaganda, including the US-based Heartland Institute, and the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation – which now has former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott on its board of trustees".

“The complexity and opaqueness of the network is noteworthy, and has made the drawing of distinct relationships between groups and individuals difficult to track and analyse. But the sheer number of linkages is clear, as are the relationships between the groups and Australia’s conservative political parties."

Many will celebrate the relegation of nuclear power to a Coalition footnote.