The Greens want a new government authority to aid the transition to renewable energy in fossil fuel heartlands. 

Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne, from the industrial Queensland city of Gladstone, says a transition authority is needed to support communities affected by the transition to renewable energy.

At the same time, unions are calling on the Albanese government to amend its climate change legislation to reflect the concerns of workers.

“If the government and Greens make serious progress on this issue over the next three years, Coalition climate scare campaigns will fall on deaf ears because coal and gas communities will know their future is being planned for and that their children will have a secure future,” Senator Allman-Payne says. 

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) says Australia has no formalised policy or approach to a just transition.

The Greens will move legislation when parliament resumes next month to establish an independent statutory national energy transition authority to plan and coordinate new opportunities for affected workers and provide advice to government.

This would be backed by a 10-year $2.8 billion fund for “diversifying coal communities”.

A Senate committee examining the government’s climate change bill to legislate a 43 per cent emissions reduction target should report this week.

The Federal Government has been keen to pass the bill through the Senate in September. The Greens intend to introduce an energy worker transition bill before the end of the year.

The Paris agreement, which Australia has agreed to, requires all signatories to consider “the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities”.

Australia must report on its just transition progress as part of a revised pledge which was formally submitted in June.