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The government's proposed $400 million Solar Systems plant is great
news but what is needed most is structural change, not one off
announcements. If the Federal government’s strategy is to lay out a
series of clean energy announcements from now to the election, it is
but a thinly disguised attempt to avoid the real action that is needed
– moving Australia away from polluting coal.
The government still does not get the simple fact that climate change cannot be dealt with by burning coal. We need a long term energy policy that moves us away from our dependence on coal to real deep cuts in emissions and sustainable investment in genuine renewable energy technology. If we don’t move away from coal, we won’t deal with climate change.
Until the government introduces structural changes such as a price on carbon, they will fail to send the necessary signal required to massively increase the uptake of clean renewable technologies already available to us.
The federal government is pinning its climate change hopes on attempting to clean up coal fired power stations by funding experimental and unproven carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, which are 10-15 years away from commercialisation. Even the government's own analysis indicates that continuing to burn coal with CCS will still increase global greenhouse emissions by 70 per cent by 2050.
Greenpeace energy campaigner Danny Kennedy said that perversely, at the same time as Howard announced millions in drought relief, he threw similar amounts of taxpayers’ cash at the climate change culprit – the coal industry.
“Over $50 million will reportedly be handed out to Victoria’s Hazelwood coal fired power station – the most polluting in Australia. And furthermore, the government continues to pay diesel subsidies to the coal industry – the Hunter Valley coal industry alone receives $380 million per year," he said.
"We invite the PM to reconsider his black armband view of renewables after reading these two positive and realistic reports - solar is the fastest growing form of electricity generation with growth rates of 40 per cent per year, and wind is the second fastest, at 28 per cent per year."
The government still does not get the simple fact that climate change cannot be dealt with by burning coal. We need a long term energy policy that moves us away from our dependence on coal to real deep cuts in emissions and sustainable investment in genuine renewable energy technology. If we don’t move away from coal, we won’t deal with climate change.
Until the government introduces structural changes such as a price on carbon, they will fail to send the necessary signal required to massively increase the uptake of clean renewable technologies already available to us.
The federal government is pinning its climate change hopes on attempting to clean up coal fired power stations by funding experimental and unproven carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, which are 10-15 years away from commercialisation. Even the government's own analysis indicates that continuing to burn coal with CCS will still increase global greenhouse emissions by 70 per cent by 2050.
Greenpeace energy campaigner Danny Kennedy said that perversely, at the same time as Howard announced millions in drought relief, he threw similar amounts of taxpayers’ cash at the climate change culprit – the coal industry.
“Over $50 million will reportedly be handed out to Victoria’s Hazelwood coal fired power station – the most polluting in Australia. And furthermore, the government continues to pay diesel subsidies to the coal industry – the Hunter Valley coal industry alone receives $380 million per year," he said.
"We invite the PM to reconsider his black armband view of renewables after reading these two positive and realistic reports - solar is the fastest growing form of electricity generation with growth rates of 40 per cent per year, and wind is the second fastest, at 28 per cent per year."
