Antinuclear

The environment and the economy will bear the cost of the Abbott government’s attempt to shift the goal posts on Australia’s renewable energy target. The government’s wordplay – declaring it is now pursuing a “real” 20 per cent target for renewable energy use – will actually slow the momentum towards wind and solar electricity, as it surely knows. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is again encouraging a misguided belief that the world can forever rely on burning fossil fuels…………..

The regressive stance adopted by the Coalition is holding Australia back. The carbon tax has been abolished, any move to a carbon emissions market has been deferred indefinitely, and even the government’s promised “direct action” is yet to eventuate. One result is uncertainty in the business community.

Mr Abbott has now compounded that confusion by seeking to revise the renewable energy target. He claims the goal to produce 20 per cent of Australia’s energy needs from renewable sources by 2020 will be met by generating 27,000 gigawatt hours of electricity each year, down from the present 41,000-hour target. All such a backward step will achieve is to slow Australia on the necessary path to developing the alternative energy market.

The government’s bias in favour of the fossil fuel industry over the renewable energy sector has a regrettable human cost……….
Mr Abbott wants to leave climate change off the agenda for next month’s G20 summit in Brisbane. He has said the G20 is an economic forum, and therefore not the appropriate venue for a discussion of environmental issues. His judgment is mistaken. The environment is intimately bound to the economy, and ignoring the problems caused by global warming will not make them disappear.

Mr Abbott, through his sloganeering for the coal industry and wilful disregard for real and growing benefits of renewable energy, has put himself in a position where no national leader should wish to find themselves: standing on the wrong side of history.http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-age-editorial/get-real-on-renewables-20141026-3ixc2.html#ixzz3HNL8JS6S