'Stand still' target does nothing to reduce emissions
Date: 24-Sep-2007
The 30,000 gigawatt-hours per year ‘clean energy target’ announced by the Prime Minister today is weak and will do nothing new to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, the Australian Conservation Foundation said today.
“This is a stand still target that will do nothing new to encourage the growth of renewable energy beyond the existing state-based schemes,” said ACF executive director Don Henry.
“At a time when Australians are looking for leadership to tackle climate change, this weak target will not help.”
Polling this month found nine out of ten Australians agree that Australia should “aim to produce 25 per cent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2020”.
“The Prime Minister’s clean energy target works out to be around a 15–16 per cent target by 2020 and – because it includes technologies to clean up coal – it may actually go backwards from the state renewable energy schemes.
“This doesn’t advance action on climate change and provides no incentive for the states to abandon their own schemes.
“The majority of Australians want our political leaders to do more to get our electricity from renewable energy so we get on with the job of cutting greenhouse pollution and tackling climate change.
“To make real progress on clean energy Australia needs a mandatory renewable energy target of 25 per cent by 2020,” he said.
A report by ACF, Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network, A Bright Future, found a 25 per cent renewable energy target along with energy efficiency measures would generate $33 billion in new investment and deliver 16,600 new jobs – many of them in rural and regional Australia.