Review to be conducted before December as Coalition attempts to broker deal on winding back of renewable energy target

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Climate Change Authority (CCA) will conduct another review of the renewable energy target (RET) before December, as the government struggles to win Senate support to wind back the scheme.



The Coalition had intended to abolish the CCA, and despite the authority’s statutory obligation to review the RET, it handed the task to a three-person panel headed by self-professed climate change sceptic Dick Warburton.

That review recommended closing the large-scale RET to new entrants, effectively freezing new investment by bringing the current target of 41,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy by 2020 to around 16,000GWh, or else linking any increase to a pick up in electricity demand.

But after fierce resistance from industry and concerted criticism of that review, the federal cabinet has asked the environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, to try to reach a bipartisan agreement about the future of the program that would allow continued investment without fear of continued policy change.

Another meeting is scheduled for this week between Hunt and Macfarlane and the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, Labor’s resources spokesman, Gary Gray, and its environment spokesman, Mark Butler.

Labor has indicated it is prepared to support exempting the aluminium industry from the scheme, which would bring the 41,000 target down to around 39,000 gigawatt hours, but appears unwilling to move very far beyond that point.

In a statement, the CCA said its review “will have regard to the role of the electricity sector in cost-effectively meeting the national emissions reductions goals that are in Australia’s interest, in the period to 2020 and beyond”.

After the government’s successful abolition of the carbon tax it has not yet managed to legislate “Direct Action” – its proposed alternative policy to meet Australia’s 2020 emissions reduction target – and it has not yet set a post-2020 target.

The review will also take into account the absence of other climate policies.

“In the authority’s view, key considerations for reviewing the RET are the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (both now and in the longer term), and the critical role that a decarbonised electricity sector will play.

“In the absence of alternative policies to decarbonise Australia’s electricity supply, severely curtailing the RET would risk stalling Australia’s progress, at a time when climate change science makes it clear that rapid reductions in emissions are required,” the statement said.

The authority has previously recommended Australia’s 2020 target be trebled to 15%. It said its new review would draw on its previous work as well as the Warburton review. It is seeking submissions.