Why Are Rural Australians Hostile to Renewables? 4-Part Series

360info: The independent features news wire

Why the hostility to renewable energy in the Bush?

Across regional Australia, renewable energy developments have become sites of increasingly contentious political debate. While concerns about land use, environmental impacts and community consultation are often legitimate, opposition to these projects also operates within an information environment shaped by organised resistance to climate policy by certain political parties, fossil fuel lobbyists, concentrated media ownership, and transnational political networks.

Understanding the misinformation environment requires a close examination of how particular narratives are produced, legitimised, and circulated. 360info also asked what the renewable companies should do better, how to better inform communities, and introduce new initiatives that genuinely support the regions - not just those who fly-in, fly-out.

The 4-part package includes:

1. How anti-climate media have waged hostility to renewable energy in regional Australia
by Klaus Groebner and Daniel Angus, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology.
2. If the energy transition is going so well, why the hostility?
by Elianor Gerrard and Jonathan Rispler, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
3. The new church? The surprising benefits of joining an anti-renewables group
by Eleanor Buckley, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University .
4. What can be done better to show the benefits of renewables in the regions. (Solutions focus)
by Chris Briggs, Saori Miyake and Elianor Gerrard, at Energy Futures Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney

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