Antinuclear

And he has bolstered that move with a formal commitment to keep the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, both of which had been set for abolition under Mr Abbott’s leadership.

“Clean energy is central to the government’s strategy to address climate change and meet our emissions reduction targets,” Mr Turnbull said.

The policy is the culmination of extensive background work by Environment Minister Greg Hunt over a period of two months.

The green shift marks a significant policy departure from the minimalist climate platform of the Abbott government and came as tensions between the two figures reached Rudd-Gillard levels on Tuesday, playing directly into the opposition’s hands.

On what was the first day of an extended quasi-election campaign, which could yet end with a Senate deadlock and a double dissolution election on July 2, Cabinet resolved to overturn the longstanding Abbott government antipathy to the CEFC – sometimes referred to as the “green bank” – and to add another body to the nation’s climate change architecture in the form of the entirely new Clean Energy Innovation Fund.

The government says the $1 billion CEIF will “drive innovation and create the jobs of the future, while delivering a financial benefit from the investment of public money”.

It will be financed with an annual allocation of $100 million from the CEFC over each of the next 10 years.

But it will not disburse grants. Instead it will offer a mix of “innovative equity and debt products” – code for buying shares in and lending money to, new technology renewable energy ventures.

It is intended that the CEIF will target everything from smart grids, and bio fuels to large-scale solar energy projects with storage capacity.

The new body will commence operations as soon as July. It will sit between the existing $10 billion green bank, and draw expertise from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency – another body which had been on political death-row under the Abbott government.

The government believes the new CEIF will “fill a gap”, providing equity and debt financing to projects that are designed to return a profit and which have not been eligible for funding under the models of the two parent bodies to this point……..http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pms-green-shift-another-blow-to-abbott-20160322-gnoc4k.html