Australia’s energy transition killed industry, renewables now up to 10% of primary energy

Australia’s energy transition killed industry, renewables now 10% of primary energy. By Leith van Onselen at Macrobusiness.

Not exactly a spectacular success:

Remarkably, despite countless billions spent on subsidies for renewables, EVs and the like, renewables accounted for only 10% of Australia’s primary energy consumption in 2024-25, versus fossil fuels’ 90% share.

[Primary energy consumption is all the energy we extract from the environment. Unlike secondary energy (like electricity or refined gasoline) or final energy (what consumers actually pay for), primary energy accounts for the entire energy supply chain.]

If you examine the graph carefully, you will notice that total energy use has dropped since 2006. Energy use is a major indicator of living standards and GDP.

However, there was no mention of Australia’s deindustrialisation due to high energy costs, as evidenced by:

  • Closing two oil refineries
  • Closing the nickel industry
  • Closing an alumina refinery
  • Closure of fertiliser production
  • Closure of glass production
  • Closure of plastic resin production
  • Stopping the production of paper

Indeed, the Australian Energy Update 2026 shows that Australia’s reduction in fossil fuel use has been driven by the downsizing and offshoring of Australia’s manufacturing sector.

As a result, Australia’s manufacturing share of GDP continues to shrink and is the lowest in the OECD at just 5%:

Duh:

I fail to see how deindustrialising Australia, exporting emissions to other nations with weaker environmental standards, and then importing goods back on ships burning dirty bunker fuel is saving the climate.

Because it certainly is not helping the economy or lifting living standards.

Without cheap and reliable energy, Australia has no manufacturing future.

Brilliant. We de-industrialized to help us achieve net-zero, but are still only at 10% renewables overall — and we were at 4% before we even decided to reduce carbon emissions, from hydroelectricity. Shame our ruling class don’t understand that science is more than whatever they make the taxpayer fund, and they were deliberately careless for not performing due diligence on the climate models (I did, it’s not too hard).