Palmer joins Hewson for a RET love-in

Clive Palmer has joined former Liberal leader John Hewson on stage to launch the Australia Institute's new report advocating for renewable energy.

In a call to arms on renewable energy, Palmer again committed to the retention of the Renewable Energy Target, ensuring the prime minister "kept to his promises", and said PUP was committed to no changes to the target until at least 2016, and potentially expanding it out to 2030.

In another impassioned plea reminiscent of his appearance with Al Gore two weeks ago, the PUP leader called on Australia to join the "global community" and move to an ETS ahead of the key Paris summit next year, and praised Dr Hewson for his leadership and "political courage" on climate policy for 20 years.

"Fighting climate sceptics is a constant battle ... John Hewson has persevered for 20 years," he said.

Calling on a bipartisan approach to renewable energy, he said the Liberal Party he had supported for the majority of his life risked no longer being the "broad church" it had been, and highlighted the "$45 billion spent on poles and wires" that had been the real driver behind Australia's power price increases.

The duo were launching a new report by the Australia Institute – Fighting Dirty on Clean Energy: The case for the RET – which echoes the majority of findings which say the scheme has contributed a relatively minor 3 to 4.5 per cent rise in electricity prices, and was set to contribute to an overall fall in the medium and long-term, due to the effect of increased supply on wholesale power prices.

Furthermore, the institute said, the RET had reduced emissions by 22.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, and was set to add 76 million tonnes more by 2020 if left unchanged, contributing a sixth of Australia's 5 per cent reduction target."The only government policy to have reduced Australia’s emissions more has been the carbon price," it said.

Calling on the RET to stop being used as "the scapegoat" for power prices rises, it published this graphic highlighting the actual components behind the doubling in the past six years.

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The institute also published a new survey which found that 86 per cent of respondents favoured more renewable energy in the future and 82 per cent wanted more now. On the RET, 68 per cent of respondents wanted the RET target maintained or increased, with only 11 per cent calling for a smaller target.

Meanwhile, 90 per cent of Australians wanted more electricity from solar and slightly less, 80 per cent, wanted more generation from wind.

"The fact that renewable energy was so strongly supported in the community was probably a factor in the decision of the Liberal and National parties to support the expansion of the RET to 20 per cent by 2020. The legislation passed both houses of Parliament unanimously in 2009," the report noted.

"The survey results show there is a strong appetite in the general public for ongoing support from the government for renewable energy."