The Australian opposition includes the country’s first nuclear power plants in its energy plan before the elections

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s main opposition party announced plans Wednesday to build Australia’s first nuclear power plants as early as 2035, arguing that government policies to decarbonize the economy with renewable energy sources including solar power, wind turbines and green hydrogen it won’t work.

The policy statement ensures that the main parties will be divided over how Australia will reduce greenhouse gas emissions at elections scheduled later in the year. Since 2007, parties have not entered an election with the same carbon reduction policies.

“I’m very happy that the election will be a referendum on energy, nuclear power, energy prices, turning off the lights and who has a sustainable path for our country in the future,” Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told reporters.

Dutton said seven government-owned reactors would be built on aging coal-fired power plant sites in five of Australia’s six states. The first two would be built in the years 2035–2037, and the last one in the 2040s. He added that cost estimates would be provided at a later date.

The current centre-left government has rejected nuclear power generation in Australia as too expensive. Too many coal-fired generators would be taken out of service before nuclear power could fill the gap.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has accused the conservative opposition Liberal Party of serving influential lobbies for Australia’s coal and gas industry.

“It’s not actually an announcement. We know that Mr. Dutton wants to slow down the deployment of renewable energy sources and wants to introduce the most expensive form of energy that is slow to produce,” Bowen told reporters.

“But today we didn’t see any costs, we didn’t see any gigawatts, we didn’t see any details. It’s a joke. This is a serious joke because it threatens our transition away from fossil fuels,” Bowen added.

Bowen’s Labor Party came to power in the 2022 election promising deeper cuts to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 than the previous coalition government committed.

The previous Liberal Party-led government promised to reduce emissions by 26-28% compared to 2005 levels by the end of the decade.

Labor promised a 43% cut and Parliament enshrined this target in law, creating difficulties for any future government that wanted to reduce it and providing certainty for investors.

Dutton ruled out announcing a new 2030 target before the next election. However, the main parties have agreed to a net zero emissions target by 2050.

Dutton said Labor would not be able to meet its 2030 target with a purely renewable energy policy.

A Liberal Party-led government would use nuclear power, renewables and “significant amounts of gas,” Dutton said.

“I want to make sure the Australian public today understands that we have a vision for our country to deliver cleaner, cheaper and consistent electricity,” Dutton said.

Australia has historically been one of the world’s worst per capita emitters of greenhouse gases due to its heavy dependence on abundant supplies of cheap coal and gas.

A 17-year ongoing conflict between the main parties over how to reduce emissions led to the carbon tax introduced by the Labor government in 2012 being repealed by the Liberal government in 2014.

Since 1958, Australia’s only reactor in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights has been producing nuclear isotopes for medical purposes.

Dutton said the country may only consider going nuclear power now because major parties agreed in 2019 to the AUKUS partnership with the United States and Britain, which will provide Australia with a fleet of submarines powered by American nuclear technology.