Free electricity can break the climate deadlock

ITOFTEN COMES asasurprise to find the little hacks strewn through the consumer universe that could make our lives easier, if only we noticed them: The unobtrusive light on your car dashboard pointing out which side the fuel tankis on or the way Chinese takeout boxes can be unfolded into plates.

- DAVID FICKLING

It’s the same with the timers you’re ignoring on almost every appliance in your house. Most electricity-hungry household devices come with one builtin,soyou can choose when torun orcharge them. Fartoo few of usare using them.

That’s something the Australian governmentis looking to change. Utilities in three states will be required to offer households atleast three hours of free electricityin the middle of the day,whenan abundance of solar generation routinely drives prices into negative territory.The idea is to push more demand to the same hours and away from the evening peak,when prices surge. That should help balance the grid, while offering voters a zero-cost benefit. It’s a smart piece of retail energy politics of a sort that’s far too thin on the ground as fossil fuel revanchists in the US, Europe, and elsewhere attempt to reverse progress on climate change. Leaders starting a downbeat COP30 United Nations climate conference in the Belém this week should take heed.