TURNBULL’S WEAK TARGETS WILL SMASH RENEWABLES INVESTMENT

New analysis released today from Green Energy Markets indicates that if Malcolm Turnbull continues to use the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) to block state based renewable energy programs and allows his government’s weak pollution reduction targets to set the benchmark for renewables investment – the NEG won’t see any new renewables investment for an entire decade.

Green Energy Markets has labelled Turnbull’s weak pollution reduction target as "completely inadequate", while the Clean Energy Council has today warned “Unless the emissions reduction target is higher, there will not be enough new power generation built to replace the coal-fired power stations which will retire in the coming decades.”

If Turnbull continues his push for a weak pollution reduction target for the electricity sector, it will not only lead to higher prices and less generation, but it will impose additional costs on other sectors of the economy, including transport, agriculture and manufacturing, which will have to take up the slack from electricity.

The Labor Party is dedicated to doing all we reasonably can to see a bipartisan energy policy solution that supports a modernisation of our energy system, and brings the energy crisis to an end. But we will never agree to a policy that devastates renewable investment and seeks to tie the hands of a future Federal Labor government in implementing our clear commitment to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

Malcolm Turnbull and Josh Frydenberg need to stand up to the hard right of their Party and implement credible electricity pollution reduction targets that support renewables investment.