In response to the Council of Australian Government’s meeting regarding the National Energy Guarantee, ACF Chief Executive Officer, Kelly O’Shanassy said:
“The proposed target under the Turnbull Government’s National Energy Guarantee to cut pollution from Australia’s electricity supply is woefully inadequate. If left unchanged, it will lock Australia into polluting coal and leave clean energy out in the cold.
“We are deeply concerned that Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg has said the Turnbull government intends to lock their inadequate pollution reduction target in until 2030. That will absolutely put the brakes on meaningful action to cut pollution from the electricity sector and is utterly irresponsible.
“State governments have made strong commitments to deeper pollution cuts and to embrace clean energy. It remains unclear whether the National Energy Guarantee will jeopardise fulfilling these commitments.
“Any plan to cut pollution must be easily scalable to ensure Australia can lift its ambition to halt global warming in line with the Paris Agreement.
“Australia desperately needs a national climate change and energy policy that replaces coal with clean energy, makes deep cuts to planet-warming pollution and sets Australia on a pathway to net zero pollution. The National Energy Guarantee currently fails these critical tests.”
