From ‘Lost Decade’ to incomplete ‘Transformation’: Australian Climate Policy via Ideas, Interests, and Institutions

Australia’s centre-right Coalition government’s ‘Lost Decade’ (2013-2022) entailed the dismantling of climate policy. Subsequently, the centre-left Labor government passed the Climate Change Act in 2022, Australia’s most ambitious climate policy shift in a decade. In this article, we address the interrelated questions of how to explain the changes in Australian politics that allowed for the Climate Change Act to be implemented and, by extension, what, if anything, changed between 2022 and 2024? We identify explanations for this shift in national policy across ideas, interests, and institutions as Australia increasingly engages in global competition for critical minerals The Australian case offers insights for other fossil fuel exporter economies, as even transformative policy remains constrained by entrenched political-economic structures. This mixed position enables Australia’s new ‘dual-track’ approach that entrenches both fossil fuels and green energy while its weak climate policy legacy renders Australia a policy and price ‘taker’ in the net-zero transition.