Fed National Energy Guarantee (NEG) (2017)

Policy Engagement Overview

• The evidence collected on corporate and industry lobbying on Australia’s NEG from 2017-2020 indicates that most of the corporate engagements with the policy have been mixed. The largely represents entities which supported the NEG but did not take a clear position on the level of GHG target under the emissions obligation.
• InfluenceMap did not find any evidence of opposition to the NEG, but there were 25 cases of entities lobbying for provisions to weaken the scheme, including support for GHG targets below 26% and exemptions for EITE industries.
• InfluenceMap found 28 cases of positive lobbying on the NEG with Origin Energy Clean Energy Council and Energy Efficiency Council advocating for GHG targets in line with the Climate Change Authority’s recommendations (45 to 63% by 2030) and/or net zero emissions by 2050.

Impacts on Policy Ambition

In 2018, the Energy Security Board held a public stakeholder forum, and received over 100 submissions from industry and other organizations to a consultation paper on the proposed policy. The NEG was subsequently abandoned in 2018, although the reliability component was revived and legislated in 2019 under the federal Retailer Reliability Obligation.