Antinuclear

Will Malcolm Turnbull’s love for business mean a good future for renewable energy investment?

Furthermore, Malcolm Turnbull is a businessman — a successful one at that — and he will focus on ensuring Australia has a strong economy, business policy, and more besides.

This could mean that renewable energy will once again be seen as a favourable investment opportunity in Australia, if Malcolm Turnbull is to turn his love for business on to the renewable energy industry.

However, as has been outlined by website They Vote For You, Malcolm Turnbull’s voting record on renewable energy has not been very impressive, so at the end of the day, Australia may have a new Prime Minister come Tuesday morning, but the country’s renewable energy industry may remain as stagnant as it was with Tony Abbott at the helm.

What Will A New Prime Minister Mean For Australia’s Renewable Energy Industry?, Clean Technica September 14th, 2015 by Joshua S Hill   Australia’s Liberal Party has elected a new leader, Malcolm Turnbull, which will soon mean a new Prime Minister for Australia — a move which has every chance to have a positive impact on the country’s renewable energy industry which has suffered heavily under the now-previous Prime Minister, Tony Abbott………..

I have not been quiet in my distaste for Tony Abbott, who I believe has run a campaign of anti-science and pro-fossil fuel. Mr Abbott successfuly repealed the (admittedly flawed)carbon tax in July of 2014, which began a long series of policy decisions and public declarations of support for fossil fuels — specifically a stance in favour of coal as Australia’s primary form of electricity generation — which ran hand-in-hand with a dismissal of support for renewable energy. This dismissal took the form of a number of reforms to Australia’s renewable energy policy which saw an increasing lack of support for the technology, resulting in a massive drop in investment (77% by the end of 2014), global condemnation from national leaders, andnumerous reports demonstrating Australia’s deteriorating global standing.

Will Malcolm Turnbull reverse all of Tony Abbott’s seemingly-out of touch policy decisions?

Probably not, sadly. Questioned in a press event less than an hour after he won the leadership vote, Prime Minister-designate Malcolm Turnbull praised the existing climate policy, claiming it was “very well designed” and “a very good piece of law”. Of course, the bill was designed in part by his newly-elected deputy, Julie Bishop (along with Environment Minister Greg Hunt), so it’s unsurprising that in his first press conference following the successful leadership vote that he would praise all previous policy. However, as has been made very clear, Australia’s current environmental policy is not good at all.

However, interestingly, Malcolm Turnbull has long been at odds with his party leader over his views on climate change.

In an op-ed written back in 2009 (prior to the crafting of the environment policy he praised tonight), Mr Turnbull described Tony Abbott’s climate change policy as “bullshit” (which says all you need to know about Australian politics, right there).

“Second, as we are being blunt, the fact is that Tony and the people who put him in his job do not want to do anything about climate change. They do not believe in human caused global warming. As Tony observed on one occasion “climate change is crap” or if you consider his mentor, Senator Minchin, the world is not warming, its cooling and the climate change issue is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to deindustrialise the world.”

Furthermore, Malcolm Turnbull is a businessman — a successful one at that — and he will focus on ensuring Australia has a strong economy, business policy, and more besides.

This could mean that renewable energy will once again be seen as a favourable investment opportunity in Australia, if Malcolm Turnbull is to turn his love for business on to the renewable energy industry. We know that Malcolm Turnbull is a big fan of electric vehicles and energy storage, but whether that will stretch to include renewable energy is an answer to a question we will simply have to wait out and see.

However, as has been outlined by website They Vote For You, Malcolm Turnbull’s voting record on renewable energy has not been very impressive, so at the end of the day, Australia may have a new Prime Minister come Tuesday morning, but the country’s renewable energy industry may remain as stagnant as it was with Tony Abbott at the helm. http://cleantechnica.com/2015/09/14/what-will-a-new-prime-minister-mean-for-australias-renewable-energy-industry/

September 16, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News