Last week, when Origin Energy decided to keep Australia’s largest power station burning coal for two more years, it needed no regulatory approval, no new EPA licence, and will pay no carbon price for the privilege.
But these decisions are not free. They have real costs and real consequences.
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The New South Wales government estimates the cost of meeting its 2030 climate target at about $140 per tonne of climate pollution. That means this delay could cost a cool $3.5 billion.
That tab will be picked up by NSW taxpayers and every other business in NSW, who will now have to scramble harder to cut emissions to fill the 25 million tonne hole blown in our carbon budget.
But that is dwarfed by the costs that will be paid by our communities, who are this moment cleaning up from a summer of fires and flash floods made fiercer by the carbon dioxide that Eraring pours into our heating atmosphere.
We can only expect these events to become even more frequent and dangerous over the coming years. These are not abstract future risks but lived experiences for thousands of people across the state.
This is NSW’s third coal power station life-extension in three years, as owners decide that climate inaction is more profitable than the hard work of building replacement clean generation.
When bushfires ripped through my family home near Taree in the NSW Mid North Coast, my parents had just minutes to evacuate. And in the 28 years that my organisation has been training landholders to manage fire risks, bushfires have already become more ferocious as climate change has progressed.
Over 300 homes have been damaged or destroyed across Victoria and NSW this summer alone, and it will take months, if not years, for communities to recover. And could cost millions.
In the NSW budget last year, $4.2 billion was allocated to disaster recovery – more than double what was allocated in 2021-2022 as the government anticipates more disasters in the future. And these costs will keep rising until we stop those greenhouse emissions locally and globally.
Every additional year of high-emissions power generation locks in more disasters and higher recovery costs for decades to come.
This is NSW’s third coal power station life-extension in three years, as energy owners decide that climate inaction is more profitable than the hard work of building replacement clean generation.
Those concerned about leaving a safe climate for our children have a right to be very angry and to have some assurance that this won’t happen again.
Fortunately, the NSW government has options at its disposal to get our energy transition and our climate targets back on track and keep our communities safe.
NSW, the slow state
NSW is the slowest state in the country when it comes to approving wind and solar farms. In 2025, only one wind farm was approved for construction, despite 47 wind farms being at various stages of planning assessment or court appeal. Inefficient planning assessments mean our homes and businesses don’t have access to enough of the cheap, clean energy they need.
Setting basic standards for insulation, efficient heating and cooling would not only cut pressure on the grid, but also cut bills and deliver healthier, more comfortable homes, especially for the one third of NSW residents who rent and have been unable to make upgrades themselves
This is not good enough.
Our homes are often compared to leaky tents when it comes to energy waste. Setting basic standards for insulation, efficient heating and cooling would not only cut pressure on the grid, but also cut bills and deliver healthier, more comfortable homes, especially for the one third of NSW residents who rent and have been unable to make upgrades themselves.
Coal mining is one of the state’s biggest contributors to climate pollution. Simply stopping the approval of new mines and extensions would cut emissions significantly.
While the NSW government have made efforts to bring renewable energy online, the extension of Eraring shows that not nearly enough has been done.
Two years ago, Eraring was extended for the first time, with a government handout. While the energy transition takes time and money, the NSW government has had plenty of warning and money to throw at the problem. Extending Eraring once was necessary, but twice is poor planning.
It’s time for the government to step up and get our climate targets back on track with real action that cuts emissions now and brings on enough renewable energy so that we never need to extend the life of a coal-fired power station ever again.
NSW taxpayers and our communities can’t afford for coal and gas companies, like Origin, to be allowed to continue to drive up their profits by emitting millions of tonnes of climate pollution while the rest of us pay the price.