Antinuclear

Canberra’s renewable energy leadership at risk, as Federal govt demonises renewables.

The solar industry already employs more people than coal-fired generation across the country. In 2014 the solar industry employed more than 13,000 people and even with the uncertainty and watering down of the renewable energy target this is likely to have grown. By comparison, according to the 2011 census 8,000 people worked in fossil fuel electricity generation.

A clean energy transition is already happening, but it is at risk, Guardian, Alexander White, 11 Oct 16  The transition to a low carbon economy is already happening, but is at risk when residents of Australia’s capital go to the polls in local elections.

The transition to a low carbon economy is already happening … in theAustralian Capital Territory, where the local Labor government has legislated for a 100% renewable energy target by the year 2020.

But this major achievement is at risk on Saturday when residents of Canberra go to the polls for territory elections.

Renewable energy is incredibly popular in Canberra. Eight in 10 Canberranssupport the 100% renewable energy target, and the city has one of the highest domestic installation bases (per capita) of rooftop solar. The reverse auctions that the ACT Labor-Green government used to achieve this target have helped create more than 510 jobs in the renewable energy sector (that’s in the ACT alone – more have been created in other states where the wind farms are located), most of which are high-tech, high wage, and high skilled. That represents a 400% growth of renewable jobs in just five years, which is six times faster than any other state or territory in Australia……..

The anti-renewable energy policies of the Abbott government, and then the Turnbull government, put investment in renewables at risk over the past few years. By fuelling doubt about the renewable energy target, even threatening to repeal it, large-scale renewable’s investors were scared off.

This is important because the renewable energy industry is a big employer with the potential to be even bigger.

The solar industry already employs more people than coal-fired generation across the country. In 2014 the solar industry employed more than 13,000 people and even with the uncertainty and watering down of the renewable energy target this is likely to have grown. By comparison, according to the 2011 census 8,000 people worked in fossil fuel electricity generation. Sadly, fossil fuel companies around Australia are betraying the workers who have kept old coal-fired power stations running for decades, with several stations abruptly shut down and the workers abandoned. This underscores the importance of governments committed to a just transition that respects working people and their communities.

Across the world the trend is clear. For the last six years in a row renewables outpaced fossil fuels in net investment and capacity additions. New large-scale renewable installations totalled US$286bn in 2016.

When the Abbott government announced in 2014 that it wanted to scrap the renewable energy target, no new wind farms were constructed for 16 months because of the policy uncertainty.

It was the ACT’s renewable energy target that ended this drought and helped save renewable investment in Australia.

With the federal Coalition government again demonising renewables, the states and territories, including the ACT, have stepped in with local targets.

It was a bizarre spectacle and deeply damaging to his credibility for the prime minister to use a natural disaster to mount a political attack against state-based renewable energy targets. It was even more unseemly that both the prime minister and the energy minister were politicising the natural disaster while it was still happening.

With no evidence, Turnbull and his conservative cheer squad linked the successful South Australian uptake of renewable energy and the blackout. He also took a direct swipe at the Queensland and Victorian renewable energy targets………

It is important to remember that in 2013 the Abbott Liberals supported the renewable energy target. Before the election, they stated they would make no change to the policy. Things turned out very different post-election.

Renewable energy targets are a very effective way to increase the uptake of renewable energy but they require a government that is committed to achieving them. Without that commitment it is too easy for a government – which after Saturday’s ACT election could be run by a party that spent a decade opposed to renewables – to backslide. The uncertainty that would be created for the renewables sector in Canberra, if the Liberals were elected, would be deeply damaging.

The ACT renewable energy target requires a government with a genuine commitment to tackling climate change. It needs a government that has a vision for a clean energy city. It needs a government that understands important, but complicated, policy looks like reverse auctions. And it needs a government with ministers who genuinely want to see us transition to a cleaner, low carbon economy and city.

The future security of 510 renewable energy jobs in Canberra rest on the outcome of the election this Saturday. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/southern-crossroads/2016/oct/11/clean-energy-transition-happening-act-at-risk

October 11, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | ACT, politics, solar