Sydney Morning Herald
Friday 1/5/2009 Page: 5
THE Rudd Government has given big polluters a break by allowing them a generous exemption from contributing to the nation's mandated renewable energy target. The backdown, aimed at truing to secure big industry support for the Government's emissions trading scheme, was agreed to at yesterday's Council of Australian Governments meeting in Hobart.
The exemption means it is likely households and lesser polluting industries will have to meet the increased cost of the move to more environmentally friendly energy. The Government has set a target of having 20% of the nation's electricity generated by renewable sources by 2020. This is the equivalent of 45,000 gigawatt-hours.
The big polluters - known as emissions-intensive, trade exposed industry - will be exempt from using renewable energy above a target of 9500 gigawatt hours. The industries, which include cement, aluminium and sections of the mining sector, have already been promised transitional assistance to help them adapt to the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme.
However. the industries believe the assistance is inadequate and are resisting the scheme, saying it will force jobs to countries where no emissions trading scheme exists. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said yesterday the exemption "recognised the impact" of the mandatory renewable energy target in the context of the emissions trading scheme and the additional pressures caused by the recession.
The Greens senator Christine Milne said the exemption was further evidence the big political parties were uniting with big business against the climate and the community. The Climate Institute Australia called the exemption "perverse, but not poisonous, and shouldn't hold up the implementation of the [mandatory renewable energy scheme]". The meeting also agreed to new energy efficiency standards for new homes and commercial buildings. This prompted the industry to warn the cost of new homes would rise.
Mr Rudd vowed yesterday to crash or crash through with the Government's emissions trading scheme. It will go before a hostile Senate by June. The Greens want the scheme to cut greenhouse gases by 40% by 2020. The Government's scheme will set a target between 5 and 15 % . It believes the Greens' targets to be "economic lunacy". Senator Milne refused to yield yesterday and the Government has all but conceded its best hope of passing the legislation lies with the Liberals.
It is urging big business to put pressure on the Liberal Party, but the Opposition climate change spokesman, Andrew Robb, remained steadfast yesterday. He said Labor's scheme was a massive risk and he left open the possibility of the Coalition adopting a carbon tax instead of an emissions trading scheme. He backed his case with a report by the Centre for International Economics that the Coalition commissioned.
It is critical of aspects of Labor's policy and believes further modelling and analysis is needed on its effects. However, the Climate Change Minister, Penny Won-,, said yesterday many of the report's findings supported the Government's scheme. These included supporting a carbon price.
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