More than $5 billion was invested in Australian clean energy last
year but the sector has virtually ground to a halt owing to widespread
anxiety over the government’s commitment to renewables, according to the
industry body. In its analysis of renewables in 2013,
the Clean Energy Council found that nearly 15% of Australia’s power was
produced by renewable energy, with $5.18 billion invested in the
sector. The industry now employs more than 21,000 people, with
last year seeing the launch of the 140-turbine Macarthur wind farm, the
largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. But the government’s current review of the Renewable Energy Target,
which mandates that 20% of Australia’s power must come from renewable
sources by 2020, is likely to result in a drop-off in investment in
2014, the Clean Energy Council warned.
The council’s report warns
that Australians’ electricity bills will increase by up to $1.4 billion
each year beyond 2020 if the RET is removed, with the review “creating
uncertainty for the industry and eroding investor confidence”. The
review is headed by Westfield chairman Dick Warburton, who has publicly
questioned the science of climate change. Several Coalition MPs have
called for the RET to be scrapped in order to bring down power bills,
while treasurer Joe Hockey recently took aim at the renewable industry
itself, saying he found the sight of a wind farm “utterly offensive.” “There
is certainly a lot of nervousness and anxiety based on some of the
comments that have been made,” Kane Thornton, deputy chief executive of
the Clean Energy Council, told Guardian Australia. “The industry is very
much on hold at the moment and we’d expect investment to be down this
year.
“We are sitting nervously at the moment. We want this review to be conducted as quickly as possible.” Thornton
said he was hopeful that the RET review panel would realise that the
benefits of the scheme outweigh its “modest cost”, which has been
estimated as adding around 3% to energy bills. A consultancy
picked by the government to assess the cost of the Renewable Energy
Target has found that cutting back the scheme would result in higher
costs for households. ACIL-Allen's draft findings
reveal that household consumers will be better off by a net $232 a year
by 2030 as a result of the target. A separate report
released on Tuesday by the Australia Institute calculated that state
governments have handed subsidies worth $17.6 billion to the fossil fuel
industry over a six-year period.
Thornton said should the RET be
drastically altered “you’d have to ask serious questions over whether
we’ve got the balance right in terms of government assistance. Sometimes
people are a bit mischievous in not recognising there are incentives
for the fossil fuel sector, as there are for the renewable energy
sector.” According to the Australia Institute analysis, Queensland
has provided the greatest help to the mining industry with a total of
$9.5 billion, followed by Western Australia at $6.2 billion. This
assistance is provided in various ways, from direct “assistance
packages”, discounted access to services or infrastructure built
primarily to aid the resources sector. The Australia Institute
said the assistance, which doesn’t count federal government aid, was
“massive” and could be used to fund schools or hospitals.
“That
billions of dollars have been poured into companies which for the most
part are foreign-owned is even more alarming in light of the recent
budget cuts to average Australians,” said Richard Denniss, executive
director of the Australia Institute. “This report shows that
Australian taxpayers have been misled about the costs and benefits of
this industry, which we can now see are grossly disproportionate. “These
subsidies demonstrate that the economic argument for these industries
is fundamentally flawed – Australian taxpayers are funding mining at the
expense of crucial public services like education, health and police.” But
the mining industry disputes the Australia Institute’s findings, with
NSW Mining, the industry’s peak body in the state, calling the report
“dodgy” and “desperate”.
“Even if the Australia Institute’s
findings were accurate, the taxpayers of NSW are receiving mining
royalties valued at over $1.3 billion each year – around ten times the
amount the Australia Institute claims the industry receives in
‘subsidies’,” a spokesman said.
“It's time the Australia Institute
was recognized for what it is – an anti-mining, pseudo-political organization dressed up as a think-tank.”
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