One day after the federal government launched its second appeal to Opposition and cross benchers to recommence negotiations on the RET, two new reports have emerged showing that a clear majority of Australians prefer renewable energy to fossil fuels.
The reports – released on Tuesday by The Australia Institute, and co-authored by Dr Jeremy Moss, Director of the Social Justice Initiative at University of Melbourne – draw on poll results indicating that more than 80 per cent of the public ranked solar and wind in their top three preferred energy sources.
Just 35 percent of those polled by TAI nominated coal as a preferred energy source, while a further 60 per cent expressed distinct concern about coal and coal seam gas having a detrimental impact on the environment and on human health.
“The government may consider coal to be good for humanity, and wind turbines to be a blight on the landscape but, in the bigger scheme of things, the community simply doesn’t feel the same,” Dr Moss said.
“(It’s) recent efforts to scale back the renewable energy target is clearly out of step with strong public demand for more solar and wind technology,” he said.
“Australians are clearly concerned about the existing and long-term impacts of our national addiction to fossil-fuels. They clearly envisage a future powered by renewables.
The poll results coincide with a renewed plea from the federal government to Labor to immediately recommence negotiations over proposed changes to Australia’s renewable energy target (RET).
The Conversation reports that the appeal was issued in a letter from Coalition environment minister Greg Hunt – who, conspicuously, was not sent to the Lima climate talk to opposition climate spokesman Mark Butler, calling for a meeting before Christmas, and specifying that “there are no conditions”.
The Labor Party walked away from RET negotiations in mid-November after the Coalition refused to cede ground on its plans to slash the target to a “real” 20 per cent – effectively a cut from 41,000GWh to 26,000GWh, or a reduction of two-thirds of new construction out to 2020.
The opposition says it is willing to go back to the negotiating table, but wants an indication that the Coalition will be flexible.
“The problem with this letter… is it indicates no ability for Greg Hunt and Ian Macfarlane, the government negotiators, to shift from this position that Tony Abbott has dug themselves into from this 40 per cent cut to the Renewable Energy Target, a cut that would rob Australia of billions and billions of dollars of investment in solar and wind and other renewable energy and not to mention the jobs and the reduction in carbon pollution that goes with that,” said shadow environment minister Mark Butler on ABC Radio this morning.
“We’ve said that we’re up for a discussion but this industry, its finance backers have all said that no deal is better than a bad deal here. The Government’s got to show that they’re not committed to a bad deal,” Butler said.
In his letter, Hunt also says the government will hold talks with crossbenchers.
But as we reported here last month, some of the more unpredictable crossbenchers, such as Jacqui Lambie, are also being courted by DLP Senator David Leyonhjelm, who is busy drawing up his own plan to wind back the RET.
“I am working on an alternative crossbench proposal … it is nowhere near final but it would solve some of the problems we are facing … including the problem of hitting the penalty price,” Leyonhjelm told Guardian Australia in November.
Worryingly, for Australia’s renewables industry, it turns out Leyonhjelm is being advised by Max Rheese, a former executive director of the Australian Environment Foundation, which describes itself as an “environmental NGO”, but disputes the science of climate change and campaigns against wind energy.
Hunt, meanwhile, is reported to have not only written a letter offering to recommence discussions, but also placed “good faith” calls.
“Given the strong push by manufacturing unions to ensure that jobs are protected, it seems a surprise that not only did the ALP withdraw from what had been good faith discussions, but has consciously chosen to stay away,” he wrote in his letter.
“As a basis for discussions we have committed to no change in household solar energy, we have guaranteed a commitment to 20% renewable energy and we have set no preconditions on discussions.”
Of course, as we have noted many times here, the Coalition’s “guaranteed commitment” to 20% renewable energy is open to interpretation, and offers little solace to a renewables industry wracked by uncertainty.
And as of Monday, Aluminium giant Alcoa has added its voice to the call for an end to RET uncertainty – although no doubt in the hope that the Coalition’s proposed changes will get up – describing the annual cost of the RET to the company as “very, very significant”.
Meanwhile, yet another poll, this time by Fairfax, has found that 57 per cent of Australians surveyed think the federal government’s Direct Action policy is a “too little” response to address climate change, with 30 per cent of Coalition voters agreeing with that proposition.
The poll found that 76 per cent of Labor voters also rated it too little, and 89 per cent of Greens.
