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Pages tagged "Lily O’Neill"

How clean energy agreement-making in Australia is raising the bar on benefit and co-ownership arrangements for Australian Traditional Owners

Posted on Research and Information Portal · March 19, 2025 1:15 PM

In Australia, there are now many examples of Traditional Owners developing clean energy projects in partnership with clean energy developers and companies.

This discussion paper looks at how Australian Traditional Owners are taking charge of large-scale clean energy projects on their Country.

Key takeaways include finding that regulatory approvals are likely to be faster where the Traditional Owner group is the owner/co-owner of the project, or substantially involved in the project from an early stage. 

Additional takeaways include:

  • Traditional Owners have a legal veto over large-scale clean energy projects.
  • Many groups are taking charge of clean energy projects on their Country, far more so than is possible for mining, oil and gas.
  • Cultural heritage is easier to protect for clean energy projects than it is for mining, oil and gas projects.
  • Traditional Owners must be resourced properly - to undertake their own wind and solar mapping, to obtain legal & financial advice - in order to best benefit from the clean energy transition.

 

Authors: Dr Lily O’Neill and Dr Kathryn Thorburn, University of Melbourne, published March 2025.

Read the paper

What people should be looking for in strong agreements

Posted on First Nations Clean Energy Symposium 2024 · May 27, 2024 8:48 PM

Industry is learning that partnering with First Nations and gaining free prior and informed consent (FPIC) reduces risk, cost and delay.

Not doing so can lead First Nations people to hold decision-makers accountable for the consequences of their actions.

So how can we accelerate industry learning into practice?

This session looks at gaining free, prior and informed consent, the project approvals process, issues we're facing in negotiation, embedding First Nations outcomes in the Capacity Investment Scheme, and what needs to be in an ILUA and Agreements to deliver actual significant benefits to our people.

SPEAKERS: Jamie Woods, Shirley McPherson, Nick Llewellyn-Jones, Emily Gerrard, Lily O’Neill (Facilitator)

 

Geographies of regulatory disparity underlying Australia’s energy transition

Posted on Research and Information Portal · January 31, 2024 12:20 PM
Remote communities in Australia are less likely to have comprehensive regulatory protections for access to electricity and the services it provides. In a disconcerting measure of indifference, remote settlements are 18% more likely to be underserved across multiple metrics.
Analyses further highlight the possibility that Indigenous peoples, whose lands are among the most important contributors to the transition to renewable energy, are likely to be underserved by regulations that would secure their own energy needs.
Our analyses find that settlements with over 80% Indigenous share of population are 15% more likely to be underserved across multiple metrics compared with their non-Indigenous neighbours.
Regulatory review indicates that an estimated 5 million Australians (approximately one in five) are living in settlements where not all customers are guaranteed protections for life support, disconnection reporting, solar connection clarity, guaranteed service levels and independent complaints processes.
Those communities whose lands are rich in resources necessary for energy transition are simultaneously at risk of non-recognition of their own energy needs under current regulation, requiring policy remedies for a just transition.
Authors: Lee V. White, Bradley Riley, Sally Wilson, Francis Markham, Lily O’Neill, Michael Klerck & Vanessa Napaltjari Davis

Read the paper here