Australia net zero target: Energy companies warn sidelining renewables will raise power bills

Australia’s biggest energy companies have reinforced their support for the government’s 2050 net zero target and warned that failing to embrace renewables will only send power bills higher, contradicting a key Coalition argument as it fights to wind back climate action.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who formally ditched the Coalition’s support for net zero on Sunday, has revived claims that renewable energy and emissions targets will impose unaffordable costs on households.

If elected, the Coalition would also dismantle Labor’s interim climate targets, abolish electric vehicle incentives and extend taxpayer funds to keep coal-fired power stations running longer or support the construction of new ones, she said.

But in a report to be released on Monday, the chief executives of more than a d