SYDNEY, Aug 7, 2018 – The Victorian and Queensland governments must continue to listen to the Australian people, and push for the ambitious emissions reduction targets the country needs if it is to bring down power prices and reduce pollution from dirty coal power.The ACT, Queensland and Victoria have called on Prime Minister Turnbull to lift the NEG’s 26 percent target – a low target that Reputex modelling has demonstrated will push up power prices and lock in decades of dirty coal power, leaving Australia vulnerable to falling short of its already weak Paris climate obligations.
“The states have now put the onus squarely on Malcolm Turnbull to show that he can drag the Coalition towards stronger carbon reduction targets”, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Campaigner Alix Foster Vander Elst said.
“The states are demanding that he demonstrate he can get a target across the line that will actually do something in terms of power prices and emissions reduction, which just makes sense. Turnbull on the other hand, has been left spruiking a policy its own architects concede does virtually nothing.
“The states have seen the NEG clearly for what it is: its 26 percent target is too low, is too difficult to change, and will provide no benefit to the states and territories – like Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT – which have helped lead the transition to clean energy by putting in place ambitious renewable energy targets.”
Queensland, Victoria, and the ACT have also expressed their frustration at the secrecy of the Federal government, citing its failure to provide the assumptions behind modelling that underpins their claim that the NEG will reduce power prices by $150.
The public is also sceptical of the government’s repeated claims about the NEG’s impact on prices: Reachtell polling released yesterday shows that 67 percent of Australians believe the best way for the government to ensure low cost reliable electricity supply is to invest in renewables, along with dispatchable storage solutions like batteries. An even higher number want the government to adopt an ambitious renewable energy target to put downward pressure on power prices.
A recent Reputex report on the impact of the NEG on wholesale power prices concluded that by 2030 prices would be 25 percent lower under a more ambitious 45 percent renewable energy target than under the government’s proposed 26 percent emissions reduction target.
Adding to the states’ rejection of the NEG are new voices of concern from the most affected industry groups.
Two of the world’s biggest wind turbine makers have joined the growing chorus of criticism, with General Electric and China’s Goldwind slamming the 26 percent target as far below what the electricity sector was capable of doing and questioning the sector would even meet the target, given that WA and the NT are excluded.
GE’s head of renewables in Australia, Steven Oswald, said the target only represented five percent of the emissions reduction required to meet our Paris commitments, when the sector could easily do a lot more and at much lower cost than other parts of the economy.
“Turnbull has consistently ignored the states and the science on the NEG but you would think he would consider the expert advice of the industry’s most affected by his reckless indifference to the realities of the burgeoning renewable energy industry,” Foster Vander Elst said.
“He dismisses us as ideological radicals but will he do the same with General Electric, when they tell him that they are willing to do more if government can provide them with any kind of security?
“Turnbull mustn’t let fractious coal lovers in his party-room prevent him from doing what is right for the country. He needs to stare down the far-right and lift the NEG’s target to help families struggling with big electricity bills while protecting the environment he claims to care about.”
For interviews:
Martin Zavan, Greenpeace Australia Pacific Communications Campaigner
0424 295 422