20% Renewable Energy Target will take the heat off emissions trading

Clean Energy Council
2 July 08

NATIONAL: The Clean Energy Council has today welcomed the Federal Government's continued commitment to a 20% by 2020 renewable energy target (RET) for Australia's energy supply. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Working Group on Climate Change and Water has today released the RET Options Paper for comment.

Rob Jackson, Clean Energy Council's GM-Policy said: "The clean energy industry stands ready to invest up to $20 billion in zero-emission, renewable power required to meet the target and to ensure a diverse and secure energy supply for Australia; creating over 6,000 new job opportunities nationwide."

"A renewable energy target will ensure that the growth in Australia's energy demand will be met by clean sources – immediately stabilising greenhouse gas emissions in the stationary energy sector, taking pressure off the Emissions Trading Scheme, and building critical industry capacity to deliver even greater abatement into the future."

"It will take some time for the Emissions Trading Scheme alone to deliver a carbon price high enough to stimulate renewable energy investment. With a 20% renewable energy target in place now, the pressure is taken off the ETS (commencing in 2010) to reach a high carbon price quickly."

"The 20% RET will unlock the vast clean energy investment potential in Australia: the Clean Energy Council has identified over 14,000 megawatts or around 40,000 gigawatt hours per year of renewable energy projects – many of these in rural and regional Australia - that can begin development as soon as the target is legislated."

"The clean energy industry encourages the Working Group to deliver a RET that provides the greatest amount of investment incentive possible and to consider an early start to the scheme, 1 January 2009, for the immediate benefit of investment, industry development and carbon abatement."

"Renewable energy targets are a proven and effective policy measure to drive deployment of new renewable energy generation and complementing an Emissions Trading Scheme." "The COAG paper is a further step towards the introduction of a 20% RET and the renewable energy sector supports the Working Group in its deliberations prior to the final submission to COAG later this year."