The Bill should not pass because the Energy Roadmap proposals could increase Queensland’s emissions by 310 million tonnes to 2050, almost a years’ worth of Australia’s national emissions.

This increase from the electricity sector will impose abatement costs of perhaps $98 billion on other parts of the economy.

Within the Energy Roadmap there is an “Electricity Maintenance Guarantee”, a commitment to spend $1.6 billion on extending the lives of coal, gas and hydroelectric generators.

However, this does not appear to be new spending and simply represents an extension of business as usual in subsidising coal and gas generation in the state.

In fact, based on Queensland Budget Papers and previous Australia Institute research, the $1.6 billion is unlikely to be sufficient to maintain aging fossil fuel power generation assets.

This spending should be directed to renewable energy sources.