5 June 2015, Renew Economy, Burning ambition: Why the forestry industry needs the RET: On Wednesday, shadow Environment Minister Mark Butler moved an amendment to the RET legislation on behalf of the Labor opposition, that would disqualify native forest biomass as an eligible fuel source for renewable energy credits in the legislation itself. The fate of the amendment will be decided on the cross bench in the Senate on or after June 15, when parliament resumes sitting….For an industry that could only ever be ‘marginal’ and ‘localised’, the forestry industry lobby has fought hard for this change. It has a dedicated ally in the Coalition government, which has now made good on its pre-election promise to make native forest biomass an eligible fuel source under the RET. Read More here
Category Archives: Australian Response
3 June 2015, Renew Economy, Renewable Energy Target bill moves to Senate, with promise of debate over wood waste: The political debate over Australia’s renewable energy target will now move to the Senate, after legislation paring back the target from 41,000Gwh by 2020 to 33,000GWh was passed through parliament’s lower house…Federal Labor yesterday introduced an amendment to the RET bill to have the burning of native wood waste for energy excluded from the legislation, for the reason that it was neither clean nor renewable. “When in Government, Labor opposed its inclusion in the legislation and we oppose it in Opposition,” Butler said in a statement. Excluding it from the target, said, provided for large-scale solar and wind farms to be built to achieve the target of 25 per cent of Australia’s energy generation from renewable sources by 2020. Read More here
27 May 2015, Renew Economy, Garnaut: Cost of stranded assets already bigger than cost of climate action. This is one carbon budget that Australia has already blown. Economist and climate change advisor Professor Ross Garnaut has delivered a withering critique of Australia’s economic policies and investment patterns, saying the cost of misguided over-investment in the recent mining boom would likely outweigh the cost of climate action over the next few decades. Read More here See Prof. Ross Garnaut’s full submission here
Federal Budget 2015 – environment experts react: Environmental and energy issues did not feature heavily in the Budget, although there was a A$400 million total package of assistance for drought-stricken farmers (particularly relevant in the week that the Bureau of Meteorology called an El Niño), as well as an extra A$100 million in funding for the Reef Trust, aimed at safeguarding the Great Barrier Reef. Below, our experts react to the budget’s environmental and energy measures. Read More here