Funds needed for indigenous energy shift: Business News

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is business-news.png By Tom Zaunmayr Traditional Owners need greater finance access to benefit from and help to progress renewable energy projects, according to the nation’s peak native title advocacy group.
Scant resources are impacting Aboriginal groups’ ability to engage with clean energy proponents. Traditional Owners need greater finance access to ensure they can benefit from and help to progress renewable energy projects, according to the nation’s peak native title advocacy group. The National Native Title Council also wants to see federal government investment vehicles overhauled to improve the ability of traditional owners to access Commonwealth funding streams. That request came in response to a federal report into enabling economic self-determination which recommended “adequate” resourcing of traditional owner groups, “considering” impediments placed on indigenous people by financiers, and opening new funding vehicles for traditional owners. National Native Title Council chief executive Jamie Lowe said the bulk of Australia’s 270 prescribed body corporates had scant resources to engage and negotiate with project proponents. Mr Lowe said the funding shortfall left investors facing delays and financial risks which threatened projects’ social licences. “The clean energy transition provides vast opportunities for Traditional Owners with numerous clean energy, transmission and critical minerals projects predicted,” he said. “But while billions of dollars of funding have been earmarked for industry, virtually no funding has been set aside for Traditional Owner groups with scant access to finance.”
The report comes in an environment where project proponents increasingly see indigenous partnerships as a way to smooth the path for large renewable energy projects. In return the deals would provide long-term revenue and careers for traditional owners. Western Australia is shaping up as a major hub for indigenous-backed renewable energy projects, though progress in the sector is glacial. The East Kimberley Clean Energy Project has the largest Aboriginal ownership mix out of all proposed major projects – with three of four traditional owner group partners each having a 25 per cent stake. Yindjibarndi Energy is also of note and is among the most advanced of the state’s major renewable energy projects. Theia Energy’s Gingerah Hub and the Western Green Energy Hub in Eucla are proposing deals with traditional owners too. At a smaller scale there are projects such as Zenith Energy’s partnership with the Tjiwarl people, of which NNTC chairman Kado Muir is a member, and Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation’s potential 80-megawatt solar farm to feed power to Rio Tinto. Mr Muir said concessional finance and capital grants such as those offered by the Canadian First Nations Authority should be investigated. “Most PBCs have little ability to access finance and other critical support needed to manage Country and purchase equity stakes to co-own large-scale projects,” he said.
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