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This paper links energy and climate change with disadvantage in Australia and explores the dual disadvantage of steeply rising electricity prices and increasing climate change impacts. It reviews the potential of energy policy and climate policy to alleviate disadvantage, over the short and longer term, and suggests that renewable energy in particular has a role to play. However, the prospect of renewable energy policy advances in Australia is constrained, it is found, by the politicised nature of climate policy more broadly, the influence of the fossil fuel lobby, and the predisposition of current governmental policy. Drawing upon the policy streams and advocacy coalition theories of policy change, the paper assesses the political and ideological bases of this constraint, and the prospects for improved policy that could alleviate energy disadvantage. It finds that, whilst renewable energy does have an important role to play in achieving energy affordability, it needs to be supported politically, and complemented, in practical terms, by a range of policies and measures at all levels of government.

Item Type:	Refereed Conference Paper
Keywords:	energy policy; climate change policy; renewable energy policy
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Political science
Research Field:	Environmental politics
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in human society
UTAS Author:	Crowley, K (Associate Professor Kate Crowley)
UTAS Author:	Jayawardena, O (Mr Oshan Jayawardena)
ID Code:	115751
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Office of the School of Social Sciences
Deposited On:	2017-04-07
Last Modified:	2018-04-13
Downloads:	129 View Download Statistics