Minister for Climate Change and Water Penny Wong has announced interim industry assistance arrangements under the RET, which will set aside the link between the RET and Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) legislation.

Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Matthew Warren called on all political parties to support the proposal which effectively decouples the RET bill from the CPRS, and so allowing it to pass this week in Parliament.

"We welcome this important step towards delivering the RET bill by the end of the week," Mr Warren said.

"We need the RET passed in three days, not three months. [The] announcement means that the RET can and should now be passed by Parliament this week. The only thing that can stand in its way is political point scoring and gamesmanship."

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The CEC will continue to push for amendments to ensure the government's promised target of 45,000 GWh of clean energy by 2020 is reached, by ensuring all ‘phantom’ renewable energy certificates created by the proposed solar credits scheme to assist household installation of PV panels, are reintroduced into the target.

The expanded RET is due to commence on 1 January 2010. If the CPRS has not passed by this date, interim assistance will be provided to key electricity intensive trade exposed industries. If the CPRS passes before this date, the interim arrangements will not come into force.

Fewer industries will receive assistance under the interim RET arrangements than will receive assistance if the CPRS passes. Assistance under the interim arrangements will be delivered to those emissions intensive trade exposed activities that exceed an electricity intensity threshold of 3,000 megawatt hours per $1 million of revenue (or 9,000 megawatt-hours per $1 million value added). Those activities likely to be eligible include aluminium smelting, silicon production and newsprint manufacturing.

Details of the interim RET assistance will be set out in regulations following passage of the RET legislation. The Government will be seeking stakeholder views as part of a formal consultation process.

Ms Wong said the RET interim arrangements represented a less than perfect way of tackling climate change and delivering assistance to industry, but that it was a necessary course of action to provide certainty to the renewable sector.

Ms Wong maintained that Australia needs both the CPRS and RET to effectively tackle climate change.

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull said that he was pleased Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong had decided to back down from holding the renewable energy industry hostage.

He called on Minister Wong to now "sit down and negotiate with us about the emissions trading scheme“.