The development of a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy is highlighting many opportunities for improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, provided solutions are community-led.
Jason Staines writes:
Onsite renewables, such as solar farms, will help improve health outcomes for Indigenous communities by increasing energy security and lowering costs, according to submissions to a Federal Government consultation.
Submissions informing development of a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy say replacing polluting, expensive diesel generators would allow for the continued operation of essential health equipment. A more reliable energy supply would also help improve online access to health resources.
The importance of improved housing for Indigenous communities in a warming climate is also highlighted in submissions to a consultation by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).
While Australia’s transition to clean energy could bring important health benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, submissions stress that achieving these outcomes will require greater autonomy and decision-making in designing solutions, particularly when it comes to housing policy.
In November 2023, the DCCEEW released the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy Consultation Paper, and sought submissions from interested parties.
The paper and the subsequent submissions are the first step in developing a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. The department outlined five key principles that would underpin the strategy:
- Access to reliable clean energy is a human right;
- First Nations peoples will self-determine how they lead, participate in and benefit from the clean energy transformation;
- First Nations peoples are stewards and Custodians of Country, their connection is ongoing and enduring;
- Cultural heritage should be recognised, protected and celebrated; and
- Everyone is responsible for building genuine partnerships and collaboration, underpinned by monitoring and reporting.
Broad themes
Among the 90 submissions received, several addressed the health implications of climate change and the advantages of clean energy and energy efficiency in terms of better health outcomes.
Acknowledging that Indigenous communities will be disproportionally impacted by climate change, these submissions covered three broad themes:
- A need to replace diesel as a fuel source in Indigenous communities given the pollution it produces and concerns over cost and the reliability of supply. While the submissions generally don’t focus on the direct health impacts of diesel, Croakey notes ongoing concerns in the literature about these.
- The need for improved housing to better cope with a warming climate to avoid the health complications associated with higher temperatures and humidity. This would require a push to improve regulations regarding rental housing given the high levels of renting among Indigenous communities
- Secure energy supplies through onsite renewables, which would allow for the continued operation of essential health equipment, as well as online access to health resources. It would also remove the stress related to unreliable energy supplies.
In its submission, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) noted that the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities was undermined by many economic and social determinants of health and wellbeing.
It said the climate crisis would result in “more respiratory and cardiovascular disease, injuries and premature deaths related to extreme weather events, changes in the prevalence and geographic distribution of food and water-borne diseases, implications for food and water security, changes in the prevalence of infectious diseases, and potential impacts on the mental health of First Nations people”.
Cut diesel use
ACOSS said a priority should be to address the use of “expensive and polluting diesel” as a source of energy in First Nations communities.
Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) said in its submission that “small, geographically isolated First Nations communities that currently depend on diesel generators should be priority for government loans for solar and wind development”.
DEA said this would leave such communities with affordable clean energy that was not dependent on fuel trucks that can be cut off during floods. It also added that reducing the number of heavy vehicles – which are disproportionately involved in road crashes and fatalities – on the roads could contribute to a reduction in the road toll.
The First Nations Clean Energy Network also noted the need to cut the use of diesel, saying in its submission that replacing the fossil fuel with renewable forms of generation would not only reduce emissions, but improve air quality as well.
The Network also pointed out that for remote communities who are at the forefront of extreme weather and climatic events, renewable energy projects would improve energy security and reliability.
This would produce health dividends in a number of ways, such as providing secure sources of electricity for critical health equipment such as oxygen pumps, a point made by RES Australia in its submission.
ACOSS also said many remote Indigenous communities depend on pre-paid metering cards to access electricity supplies, which meant they could go days, or even weeks, without electricity because they could not afford a new card.
“This means no access to refrigeration for foods and medicines, no ability to cool homes in the heat, and problems staying digitally connected for work, study, health and family connection; all of which puts people’s health and wellbeing at significant risk”.
Housing matters
RES Australia, a renewable energy company, also picked up the point about climate control in houses, arguing that improving energy security would also improve people’s ability to control the temperature in their homes, a significant factor in health outcomes where high temperatures combine with high humidity.
However, as ACOSS noted in its submission, the ability to control the thermal comfort of a dwelling is very much dependent upon whether the occupant is an owner or a renter. According to ACOSS, more 68 percent of First Nations adults rent, with that proportion jumping to 89 percent in remote and very remote areas.
The group pointed to a report by Kimberley Community Legal Services — Stuck in the Heat: lived experience of public housing tenants in the Kimberley — which said tenants in the Kimberley often described their homes as a ‘heat box’. It said extreme heat in inadequate housing impacts not only health outcomes for tenants, but their social, mental, and financial well-being as well.
In its submission, the Melbourne Climate Futures & Indigenous Studies Unit at the University of Melbourne summed up the situation for many Indigenous communities, who “do not have the legal right to connect their houses to solar, and are lacking other basic electricity law protections, including for health conditions that require electricity connection”.
It noted that children cannot learn above a certain temperature, nor can people sleep, with subsequent health implications. “It is a grossly unjust situation,” the Unit pointed out
Among its list of potential actions for inclusion in a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy, the First Nations Clean Energy Network suggested the Commonwealth use its influence to mandate that state and territory governments introduce minimum energy performance standards for rental properties by the end of 2025 in all jurisdictions.
The key element of the responses, however, was that any solutions needed to be community-led.
The First Nations Clean Energy Network said such efforts should be underpinned by research and data that would help to understand the “cultural, health, economic and wellbeing impacts of clean, affordable, reliable power for First Nations households”.
It recommended investment in First Nations-led community energy and diesel reduction initiatives that would build energy and climate-resilient communities.
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