Nexa Advisory welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Australian Government’s proposed cleaner fuels mechanism. Nexa supports measures that accelerate the clean energy transition while strengthening Australia’s energy security and reducing reliance on imported fossil liquid fuels.
Australia’s recurring fuel shocks are a warning. They show how exposed households, businesses, and the broader economy remain to imported fuel, global price volatility, and supply chain disruption. This is not just a transport issue. It is an energy security issue, a cost-of-living issue, and an economic resilience issue.
The consultation paper proposes a framework intended to balance three related objectives: strengthening fuel security and resilience, reducing emissions from liquid fuel use, and unlocking economic opportunities through domestic LCLF industry development. Nexa supports these objectives and considers they can be advanced together in a way that delivers the best overall outcome for Australian energy consumers.
In our view, this requires a framework that is technology-agnostic, focused on outcomes and designed to achieve emissions reduction and fuel security benefits at lowest cost, while using more targeted measures where specific domestic industry-development objectives need to be supported.
The mechanism should therefore avoid favouring particular technologies where lower-cost alternatives are available. For road transport, EVs provide an increasingly practical pathway to displace petrol and diesel, reduce exposure to imported fuels and lower emissions. Nexa does not support excluding electrification – and in particular, EVs – from the initial scope of the mechanism.
Read our submission here: Nexa Advisory submission – DCCEEW LCLF demand mechanism