Regional communities hosting the renewable energy infrastructure critical to Australia's transition to net zero emissions say they want action on climate change.
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As Australia's political leaders present increasingly opposed visions for the pathway to net zero, ACM, publisher of this masthead, surveyed its readers across regional Australia and the ACT and found widespread support for the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
Of the 1300 people who completed the online survey, 80 per cent said they believed human-induced climate change was happening, 71 per cent said Australia had a responsibility to tackle its greenhouse gas emissions and 66 per cent strongly agreed governments must act quickly to build renewable energy technology to address Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
In a sign regional communities are already bearing the brunt of a more variable climate, three in four respondents agreed or strongly agreed tackling climate change would have an impact on the environment in their local area.
Respondents to the survey included residents from the readerships of such ACM publications as the Newcastle Herald, The Canberra Times, The Standard in Warrnambool, The Courier in Ballarat and the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth.
The survey was conducted between May 27 and June 27, as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton revealed his party's plans to locate nuclear power stations in former coal-fired power plants.
But in the ACM poll, including areas like the Hunter Valley where Mr Dutton wants to establish a nuclear power plant, regional voters expressed the strongest opposition to nuclear energy, 57 per cent strongly opposing small modular reactors and 62 per cent strongly opposing large conventional reactors.
Nuclear ranked last of renewable energy infrastructure including hydrogen and natural gas power plants, solar farms, onshore and offshore wind, utility scale battery storage, and transmission infrastructure.
When asked about proposed renewable energy infrastructure around Australia, solar farms attracted the most support with 76 per cent of respondents expressing approval or strong approval, followed by utility scale batteries, onshore wind and 71 per cent approval for offshore wind.
With most surveys collecting data at a national or state level, the ACM survey, conducted by the company's research unit Chi-Squared, drilled down into regional communities, some of which already host wind towers and solar farms in their backyards.
When asked about renewable energy infrastructure in their community, 71 per cent said they approved or strongly approved of offshore wind Australia wide, but only 61 per cent were in support of the technology in their community. Solar also recorded a slight drop, 74 per cent saying they approved or strongly approved of solar farms in their community, down from 76 per cent who said they supported solar farms around Australia.
At the other end of the scale, opposition to gas and nuclear energy rose. Australia-wide, 50 per cent opposed or strongly opposed a natural gas power plant, while 54 per cent opposed a gas plant in their community. For nuclear, the pushback was similar, 71 per cent opposed or strongly opposed to a large conventional reactor Australia-wide, and 75 per cent opposed in their community.
The survey also revealed a split between coastal and inland communities on certain renewable energy technologies.
Respondents who selected the Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury, Warrnambool Standard, Burnie Advocate and Launceston Examiner as their local ACM paper were more supportive of offshore wind in their community, with 55 per cent strongly approving the technology in their community, compared to 42 per cent strong approval of wind farms from inland communities.
Those who selected an inland masthead including The Canberra Times, The Courier, the Bendigo Advertiser, The Border Mail (Albury-Wodonga), Daily Advertiser (Wagga), Northern Daily Leader, Central Western Daily (Orange), Western Advocate (Bathurst), and The Daily Liberal (Dubbo) also expressed greater opposition to transmission infrastructure.
Of those who selected a inland masthead, 23 per cent expressed strong opposition to transmission infrastructure in their community, compared to 12 per cent in coastal areas.
For those in regional Australia and the ACT, the most important benefit of the transition to renewables was the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with 69 per cent of respondents saying this was of great importance. The largest concern was what would be done with the wind turbines and solar panels at the end of their operating life, 52 per cent of respondents rating the waste created when the technology reaches the end of its life as a significant or major concern.
With renewable energy proposals already causing rifts in communities and in some cases driving neighbours apart, 48 per cent were concerned about community division caused by renewable energy proposals.
An information deficit
Despite 92 per cent of respondents stating they were either interested or very interested in Australia's energy transition, there was broad agreement governments and renewable energy developers were not providing communities with enough information.
Four in five respondents said governments - local, state and federal - were giving communities barely any or not enough information about the transition to renewable energy.
Similarly, 79 per cent of respondents said the same was true of renewable energy developers.
The findings come as Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen commits to overhauling the community consultation process, with new star ratings for renewable energy proponents and a greater focus on providing communities with benefits from the infrastructure they see every day.
With polarised discussions on platforms such as Facebook, social media was ranked the least trustworthy of any media for accurate information on renewable energy, followed by other online media including blogs and YouTube.
As the government and opposition square off about their opposing pathways to net zero, it's clear communities want more information, but the details aren't getting through.
