“The Opposition's target of a million additional solar roofs is welcomed, and the Society calls on the Government to at least match it. With a genuine commitment this target can be comfortably reached by 2020,” said AuSES CEO John Grimes.
The Society criticised the policy’s failure to deliver specific incentives for the establishment of large-scale solar farms, and said that loan guarantees, capital grants, a price on carbon and a national feed-in tariff for large scale solar were needed to deliver big solar farms in Australia.
“The Opposition’s policy also fails to fix the broken renewable energy target (RET). The Government and Opposition need to work harder to fix the RET because investment in large scale renewable energy projects, including solar, have now dried up,” added Mr Grimes.
The policy has received a tepid response from other clean energy industry bodies, including the Climate Institute, the Clean Energy Council and the Energy Efficiency Council.
Article continues below…Instead of placing a tax on carbon, Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott's proposed climate plan would provide financial incentives to businesses to reduce emissions below business-as-usual levels.
Businesses would be able to on-sell carbon abatement to the Government, which would be funded by a newly established Emissions Reduction Fund. Businesses that increase emissions levels would incur a financial penalty.
Full details of the Coalition's climate change policy are available here.
