If the energy transition is going so well, why the hostility?

This article was originally published in 360info under Creative Commons 4.0 International. Read the original article.

By Elianor Gerrard and Jonathan Rispler

Just a few weeks ago on a record-breaking Saturday afternoon sunshine and wind generated energy met 80.4 percent of all demand on Australia’s main power grid.  This has been driven by Australian households installing 52 percent more batteries and 35 percent more rooftop solar systems in the first half of 2026 – up to 276,011 in the first half of 2026 compared to 180,878 for the same period in 2025.  

This shows the energy transition is well and truly underway.

And yet, despite this success, there is an emerging and growing perception of resistance to the energy transition. Misinformation has been called out as a threat to climate action and energy, yet  it is pervasive in Australia. Its proliferation in social media feeds has been proven to be linked to vested interest groups, who benefit from a tactic of delaying climate action and renewable energy.

That sentiment is being picked up by politicians with the Coalition’s Federal, NSW, Queensland and Victorian parties all announcing policies that would scale back support for renewable projects.  With some parties,  including One Nation, going further saying they will keep coal power plants open, scrap Renewable Energy Zones, stop offshore wind, and abandon Victoria’s commitment to net zero emissions. 

So, what is behind this paradox, where Australia leads the transition to renewables and yet political parties hedge their bets by running anti-renewables campaigns? 

Social support for renewables is complex, it varies across locations, groups, technologies, and is shaped by issues of trust, procedural justice, information, economics, alongside wider geopolitical forces. Let’s try to explain what is going on. 

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Dwindling trust, poor processes

In 2018, Lowy Institute polling showed that 81 percent of regional Australia felt that ‘the government should focus on renewables, even if we need to invest more in infrastructure to make the system more reliable’.  

And yet there is also mistrust towards renewables as Jackie Trad, CEO of the Clean Energy Council, stated:  “The fundamental problem this industry has is trust. We do not have enough of it in the places where we build: regional and rural Australia.” Trustworthy relationships are widely considered at the heart of an industry’s social acceptance within a community. 

Regional communities hosting renewable developments have legitimate concerns that the energy transition has not been conducted with them. These concerns range from the lack of self-determination to devaluation of agricultural land by renewable projects.  In NSW, the inquiry into the impact of Renewable Energy Zones (REZ) on rural and regional communities and industries heard that the community felt the government “presided over the roll-out of REZs without a coherent, enforceable, whole-of-government planning framework”. 

That perception led a climate of acute mistrust by anti-renewables groups which is often a manifestation of a broader, deepening distrust toward government bodies, and those urban-led project proponents and policies. 

Therefore, it is now accepted that restoring community trust in the renewable energy industry and its policies will be key to navigate the conflict productively and then allow for the continuation of the transition at the pace needed.

Divisive media narratives

The transition to renewables is taking place alongside a transforming media landscape by misinformation and social media which is shaping perceptions. Many of the media narratives tend to reflect negative attitudes and news about renewables because it has a strong influence on emotion. While opposition to renewables does exist towards certain projects and in some regions, there is seldom proper coverage of the majority community support in REZs for renewables or the towns embracing the benefits of the clean energy shift.

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Another example of misinformation towards renewables in the regions is the false belief that renewables will take up the majority of the land mass of some states. On the contrary, our research shows that Australia will require the lowest percentage share of our landmass capable of hosting renewables relative to other G20 countries (under net zero scenario assumptions).

The most believable piece of misinformation found by the  2024 IPSOS poll is that ‘transitioning to renewable energy will lead to an increase in household energy prices’, with 68 percent of responders saying that this was believable. 

Those views persist despite CSIRO consistently reporting that solar and wind (backed by storage) continue to be the cheapest source of energy, but due to the dynamics of pricing gas and aging coal assets means that this lowered cost is not transferring to the everyday Australian. As Australians without rooftop solar continue to experience cost of living pressures from rising electricity bills, preferences shift to a more gradual and less costly approach to dealing with climate change.

A dynamic underlying this perception gap, is the vocal opposition versus the quiet supporter, linked to the way in which media and political debates amplify conflict. In some communities, farmers hosting renewable projects or people supportive of it feel too scared to speak up, and those that do face bullying, threats and being ostracised. 

Addressing misinformation requires multifaceted action, but crucially, it is also linked to restoring trust in institutions, through transparency, information integrity and accessibility.

This once-in-a-generation system change is happening in an era of cost-of-living pressures, geopolitical tensions, media and digital disruption, and wavering institutional trust. A majority of Australians still support the energy transition, but concerted action is needed to maintain and build on this support.

The quicker we phase out the increasingly unreliable fossil fuel assets from our system, and enable all Australians to benefit from home electrification, the quicker energy cost pressures will be eased. 

[Wc/VP]

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