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A solar thermal power plant oustide Seville, Spain. Budget dollars invested in renewable energy will hopefully see similar projects in Australia.
Enlarge imageThis time last year, government spending on fossil fuels and renewable energy was 28 to 1. Through the efforts of Greenpeace, our supporters, and other climate and green groups the government has finally made a significant promise of a clean energy future. If the promise rolls out, the gap will narrowed to 9.5 to 1.
Big boost for renewable energy
A solid $1.5 billion dollars will be used to build 1000 megawatts of solar power – enough renewable energy to power roughly 400,000 homes. Another $450 million will be made available for renewables through the “Renewable Australia” fund.It’s welcome news.
But, on the dark side of the moon, the budget will not be truly green until the government removes the billions of dollars of annual taxpayer handouts to fossil fuels.
Big polluters still grab the lion’s share
While acknowledging the $2 billion for renewable energy as undoubtedly a step forward, Greenpeace Campaigns Director Steve Campbell cautioned that the $7 billion of annual handouts to polluters, combined with $2.4 billion to the fantasy of ‘clean coal’, amounts to significantly more public money fuelling climate change than fighting it.“This is particularly galling in the face of a $57 billion deficit,” said Campbell.
“Instead of grasping the opportunity to boost our economy at a time of global crisis, $7 billion is being squandered each year on unnecessary fossil fuel subsidies. The government has failed to remove a single dollar of this polluters’ welfare,” he said. “With purse strings tightening across the country, this is inexcusable.”
More dollars to the mirage of 'clean coal'
When a child invests time in a fantasy, it’s endearing. But when a government invests billions of dollars into one, such as “clean coal”, it’s just plain wrong. Especially, when there are viable, ready-to-go alternatives such as renewable energy. Back to the budget.Over the next nine years, the government will pour $2.4 billion of our money into so-called 'clean coal'. It’s an absurd use of public money, not least in these cash-strapped days. The money would be better spent delivering real renewable energy right now instead of throwing money at 'clean coal', which will not be feasible for decades to come (or, more likely, not at all).
The Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) funding runs until 2018, but doesn’t aim to have a single plant operating at commercial scale. So while the solar plants built from the renewable energy funds will be delivering real renewable energy to Australian homes, the coal industry will still be using our taxes to try and prove itself.
Other budget bits — a mixed bag
The government also announced the direction of its infrastructure package. The good news here is that more money will be invested in sustainable transport programs than on roads. However, despite not being part of this year’s spending, the same fund is providing over a billion dollars to increase the amount of greenhouse-polluting coal we export, further driving greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.A very disappointing announcement was that the Land and Water Australia Centre – an essential climate change information resource for rural Australia – was scrapped in order to save $13 million. This is chicken feed compared to the $300 million of our tax dollars used each year to pay the wealthy coal industry’s diesel fuel bill.
All in all, this budget failed to deal with the fundamentals of our economy, which are still geared to support the continued use of fossil fuels. Increased support for renewable energy is vital, but with climate change requiring urgent action, we need the scale of change that sparks a rapid Energy [R]evolution in Australia.
