Page 2299 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 August 2015
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Ms Porter’s motion also talks about the ongoing partisan and destabilising approach of the federal government when it comes to the renewable energy sector and the impact that is having on jobs and investment certainty in what is one of the largest growing parts of the global economy. The transition to renewable energy is transforming economies globally, and billions and billions of dollars are being invested in renewable energy around the world.
Regrettably, the position being adopted by the federal government, in its attacks on wind energy generation and its draft directive to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to cease investment in wind and solar, means that Australia is missing out on investment in renewable energy and is missing out on that multibillion dollar transformation that is occurring globally. That means we are missing out on jobs, we are missing out on the technical expertise that comes with that investment, and we are missing out on one of the most significant changes to the global economy that has been seen in the last century.
Here in the ACT, we are charting a different course. Here in the ACT, we have started from the premise that as a city and as a community we need to make our contribution a fair and proportionate contribution to reducing the impact of our economy on the global climate. We have established strong greenhouse gas reduction targets that reflect the science and are now increasingly considered best practice across cities and regions globally when it comes to the contribution that city and regional economies can make to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
That 40 per cent reduction target on the 1990 level informs the approach we adopt as a city and as a community to renewable energy. Renewable energy is therefore the heavy lifter of the ACT’s greenhouse gas reduction effort. Our 90 per cent renewable energy target has been recognised nationally and internationally as a leadership position that other cities and regions are increasingly referring to. It will deliver almost three-quarters of the emissions reductions needed to meet our legislated greenhouse gas reduction target.
Seventy per cent of the renewable energy generation needed to achieve that target will come from large-scale renewable energy generators that will be supported through our large-scale feed-in tariff program. The balance will be achieved through smaller scale generation, most notably the contributions of the now wound back renewable energy target federally and rooftop solar here in the ACT, the percentage of which continues to grow each and every year.
The ACT has embarked on a very ambitious program through our large-scale feed-in tariff law administered through a reverse auction process. We have adopted this process because it is one of the most effective and timely ways to deliver large-scale renewable energy projects on the ground. It is a mechanism that is understood by the banks, understood by the finance institutions and understood by investors. It gives them certainty and confidence to invest. That is in marked contrast to the lack of certainty and the lack of confidence that have been instilled in the industry by the actions of the federal Liberal government.
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