Australia eyes US climate policy shift for green energy boost

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Any move by the Trump administration to change U.S. climate policy could benefit Australia’s ambitions to attract greater investment to its critical minerals and green energy industry, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday.

Australia has rich deposits of copper, vanadium, cobalt and lithium used in electric vehicle batteries. It is competing for global investment to build its clean energy sector, including critical minerals processing.

Trump has promised to rescind President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy.

“There are potential benefits if there are changes in U.S. policy. We’ll wait and see what occurs,” Albanese told reporters in Peru, where he is attending the APEC summit.

Australia sees climate action as a great economic opportunity, he said.

“The Inflation Reduction Act, for example, has seen considerable capital flow to the United States. If those incentives aren’t there, then that has implications for the nature of the global economy,” he said.

Australia was not pre-empting changes, he added.

“We have all of the resources under the ground that will drive the global economy in the 21st century. Copper, vanadium, cobalt, lithium, etc. We have a great opportunity to produce green hydrogen through use of the renewables,” he said.

Albanese met with Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto on Thursday, and told reporters the impact of a Trump presidency on the world was “part of the backdrop of APEC”, and was being discussed by leaders.

Albanese added his phone call with Trump last week was “very constructive”.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Christopher Cushing)