The law and regulation of the energy sector in Australia is subject to overlapping responsibilities of both federal and state governments. Crucially for energy transition efforts, neither energy, environment nor climate is mentioned in the Australian Constitution. Australia has a tradition of creative cooperative federalism solutions for responding to problems of national importance. In the energy sector this has resulted in an intricate national framework for energy markets, which relies on mirror legislation passed by participating states, with oversight by state and federal executive governments. Independently of these frameworks, both federal and state governments have passed climate change legislation, which crucially includes renewable energy support mechanisms. At a time when a rapid transition to a decarbonized energy system is essential, legal frameworks struggle to respond in a timely fashion. The political discourse around energy has become increasingly toxic – reflecting a dysfunctional state–federal relationship in energy and climate law. Australia needs to consider whether its cooperative federalism solutions are sufficient to support the energy transition and how climate law at the state and federal levels interacts with energy market legal frameworks.

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作为联邦制挑战的澳大利亚能源转型：（非）合作能源联邦制？

澳大利亚能源部门的法律和法规受联邦和州政府的职责重叠。对于能源转型的努力至关重要，澳大利亚宪法中既没有提到能源、环境也没有提到气候。澳大利亚具有创造性的合作联邦制解决方案的传统，以应对具有国家重要性的问题。在能源领域，这导致了一个复杂的国家能源市场框架，该框架依赖于参与州通过的镜像立法，并受到州和联邦行政政府的监督。独立于这些框架，联邦和州政府都通过了气候变化立法，其中关键包括可再生能源支持机制。在必须快速过渡到脱碳能源系统的时候，法律框架难以及时做出反应。围绕能源的政治话语变得越来越有毒——反映了能源和气候法中功能失调的州-联邦关系。澳大利亚需要考虑其合作的联邦制解决方案是否足以支持能源转型，以及州和联邦层面的气候法如何与能源市场法律框架相互作用。