ANGUS TAYLOR: Welcome all to Perth for the 22nd COAG Energy Council meeting.

Can I thank the Western Australian Government and Bill Johnston in particular for hosting us here in this beautiful city and this beautiful state today. It is fantastic to be over here in one of the great resource states of the world, regions of the world. Thank you, Bill, for hosting us here today.

COAG is obviously an extraordinarily important opportunity for us to secure ongoing reliability and affordability in our energy system, whilst we meet our international emissions obligations.

This is also an opportunity today to discuss future technology options. We'll be discussing hydrogen, in particular.

And also discuss summer readiness, which of course as we move into summer now and over the coming weeks, is a pressing issue for many of the states.

We will be seeking agreement today to bring forward a review of the reliability standard.

This review is absolutely critical in ensuring that we have enough reliable generation in the National Electricity Market.

Can I note my gratitude to other states, in particular Victoria who has done a great deal of work on getting us to this point.

This is very, very important for electricity consumers across the National Electricity Market, that they do have a reliable, affordable source of energy for many years to come.

Importantly, we'll hear from the relevant government agencies on the upcoming summer, and the work they've been doing.

We will hear from Dr Alan Finkel on the work that he has been doing and his team has been doing to accelerate the discussions around hydrogen, and developing and finalising the National Hydrogen Strategy.

The Commonwealth will give an update on our work on reducing emissions, and in particular, the application of the $2 billion Climate Solutions Fund, which is part of the broader $3.5 billion Climate Solutions Package.

As energy ministers, we have an enormous amount of work to do. I'm looking forward to a productive day on important issues that really matter for all Australians.

Our focus needs to be on affordable, reliable energy whilst we're meeting our national obligations.