Antinuclear

Malcolm Turnbull has finally caved to his supporters instead of the Abbott camp by announcing early today a decisive and dramatic signal move to support climate action. He’s announced not only a $1 billion Clean Energy Innovation Fund but a commitment to retain the Clean Energy Finance Corporation AND the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

Media today was awash with news of the fund designed to create innovation and jobs with smart grids, alternative energy such as bio fuels and large-scale solar projects.

It’s the most-vote winning confidence-boosting thing he’s done since winning office and making his statement on innovation, essentially declaring Australia was back in the land of the living, instead of the walking dead. It’s a powerful wake-up call to Labor to get back on the most important and competitive bandwagon going, the fight to save our planet AND create a innovation clean, green and lean economy.

The move finally makes Turnbull a man of his word. He promised innovation when he was elected and he made many more implicit promises in support of climate action and a range of more liberal policies during his steady campaign beforehand. But in the six months that followed his leadership he has roundly disappointed by refusing to make any major new commitments, in line it must be said, with his promises to his colleagues that he would not change the Abbott government’s stance on major issues.

In fact he has stifled innovation by allowing the CSIRO to be slashed and degraded on his watch and stood mute on a range of other issues.

Kane Thornton, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, was this morning not totally convinced about the new fund. He told ABC radio the proposal was “really giving with one hand while taking from the other”. (The new fund will be financed by $10 million from ARENA over 10 years. )

“This proposal obviously keeps the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and that’s a welcome development.

“But essentially it is removing funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and really I guess constraining it in terms of its ability to provide capital grants to the sector into the future.”

• See the full transcript of this interview here
• Read more media articles here, in The Guardian
• Fairfax Media

And see how the extreme right wing sees the news here (It calls the destruction of the Liberal Party by Turnbull)

As we draw near to a possible election on 2 July, we’ll be watching closely. The whole world will be.