Antinuclear

THIS is a story about thousands of jobs the Abbott government could be helping to create, but which may never come into being. It is not a story about climate change, or any other issue which divides people along ideological lines, despite the divide between Australia and the the rest of the world becoming much clearer over the weekend.Quite simply, it is about something we all believe in — Australia’s prosperity.

Let’s break this thing down into 25 quick, easily digestible points.

1. Two Aussie employers spoke exclusively this week to news.com.au about their extreme dissatisfaction with the Abbott government’s stance on renewable energy. They want to create jobs and wealth in the renewable energy industry. They say the government is making it virtually impossible for them.

2. First a little background. The renewable energy industry is by any measure is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries. Other countries understand this. For example, China this year for the first time installed more renewable energy capacity than fossil fuels.

3. But the Australian government is scaling back its commitment to renewable energy. Up until recently, Australia had a bipartisan agreement to a 20 per cent renewable energy target (RET) by the year 2020.

Seems we once understood that the holy trinity of jobs, investment and a cleaner environment was well worth chasing. But the Abbott government no longer buys this. It says we should be working towards a new target of 26,000 gigawatt hours of green power instead of the agreed 41,000. This massive reduction has created an environment of great uncertainty for investors. Many of these investors come from overseas and would sink money into Australian projects. But they are now worried the industry has no future here.

“My members are looking at the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, France and some South American countries as having more stable investment environments for low-carbon opportunities,” said Nathan Fabian, the head of an investor group on climate change.

4. According to a revealing graph in a major report from the Climate Council this week Annual large-scale renewable energy investment in Australia in 2014 is a fraction of 2013 levels and set to be the lowest in 12 years. We are going backwards, and fast………..

23. Mr Shorten announced that Labor has given up trying to negotiate the renewable energy target with the government after the government would not budge an inch.

“This is devastating,” he said. “There are 21 thousand solar workers who don’t know if they’ve got a job at Christmas time. Tony Abbott did that when he broke his election promise and when he commissioned a bogus review.

“There has been no case made for change to the renewable energy market.”

24. Another thing Mr Shorten said today was that “Australians overwhelmingly believe in and want renewable energy. The government is completely out of touch on this issue.” It has often been reported that 80 per cent of Australians support more renewable energy. We invite your thoughts on this point in the comments below.

25. We’ll leave the last, rather troubling word to Vast Solar CEO Andrew Want.

“We have to start diversifying. Other countries are putting in programs for structural change and providing that stability for investors. Investors need that long term certainty and they are taking it where that certainty is.

“It’s certainly not Australia at the moment.”

Originally published as 18 million Aussies want it. Govt says no http://www.perthnow.com.au/technology/does-this-government-like-creating-jobs-the-huge-opportunities-were-missing-in-renewable-energy/story-fnjww6jo-1227125258877?nk=6c424c7410ec34b2f61e3ed41d392e3a