Big coal cloud over tiny solar budget funding

Steve Shallhorn, Greenpeace Australia Pacific CEO, said: “This budget sees the Treasurer move from being a climate change denier to a climate change pretender, whilst what Australia needs is a climate change champion.

"The 90 percent of Australians who, according to a Newspoll last year, want a switch from coal to renewable energy will find little to smile about.”

While increased funding for solar is welcome it is dwarfed by the estimated $10 billion per year in subsidies that go to fossil fuel industries, as identified in a new report by the Institute for Sustainable Futures and Greenpeace. Last week, the government released figures showing that annual greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation in 2005 were 50.1% higher than in 1990.

“A modest increase in solar use will not reverse this trend - what we need is a major shift to renewable energy and energy efficiency, which is lacking in this budget,” Shallhorn said.

“It is highly likely that this budget will actually increase the subsidies going to fossil fuel industries with the future spending of the $500 million low emissions technology development fund. To date, this fund has put five times as much funding into fossil fuel projects as it has into renewable energy.

“Developing countries’ forests should be protected on their own merits. The relatively small commitment to this issue does not buy political credit against the failure to tackle the number one issue, which is making a transition out of fossil fuels to renewable energy.”

Last week the IPCC report found that energy efficiency was the most obvious climate change solution. And yet in this budget it has been largely ignored.

“Treasurer Costello has finally found the will to mention 'climate change/global warming’ seven times. However, if the federal government wants to convince Australians that they are serious about climate change they will need to establish targets to reduce greenhouse pollution and introduce policies that will break our coal habit and bring about a clean energy revolution.”